Wills, Trusts & Estates
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April 17, 2025
Personal autonomy: The right to decide when making controversial gifts
In our aging society where many of us live well into our nineties, often with diminished capacity, the issue of autonomy to make gifts is of increasing importance.
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April 15, 2025
New CBA course aims to aid legal professionals in serving trans clients
During one of the most hostile periods in recent history for trans rights, the Canadian Bar Association has launched an online course to help legal professionals better serve trans people.
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April 15, 2025
Spousal support and foreign divorces
Family lawyers have all experienced the frustration of advising a spouse that our courts do not have jurisdiction, either under the Divorce Act or the Family Law Act, to grant spousal support if a valid divorce has been granted in a foreign jurisdiction.
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April 14, 2025
Limitless? When employees become disabled during the notice period
In Saskatchewan Indian Gaming Authority Inc. v. Pasap, 2025 SKCA 15, the court considered the case of an employee who sued for both reasonable notice damages, as well as damages for lost disability insurance benefits, when he became disabled during his claimed notice period. The court of appeal, in its majority and dissenting reasons, demonstrates the tension around determining whether a worker is disabled from all occupations.
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April 11, 2025
Nova Scotia, legal group providing power of attorney app
Nova Scotia has partnered with a legal resource provider to develop a free app aimed at making it easier to name a power of attorney.
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April 10, 2025
Constitutional clash brewing as Ottawa targets immigration bar with up to $1.5 million in admin penalties
Bar organizations are warning Ottawa that a new administrative monetary penalty regime to be applied to legal professionals — featuring penalties of up to $1.5 million for immigration and refugee lawyers determined by federal officials to have participated in clients’ misrepresentations — will be constitutionally challenged if lawyers are not exempted from the proposed regulations, which are expected to come into force later this year.
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April 09, 2025
New $1 coin marks the creation of the Supreme Court of Canada 150 years ago
The Supreme Court of Canada marked a milestone birthday on April 8, 2025, 150 years after it came into existence on April 8, 1875, when the Supreme and Exchequer Courts Act received royal assent. The composition, powers and importance of the world’s only bilingual and bijural apex court have evolved considerably since the court first sat in 1876, after the original six-judge bench was appointed.
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April 09, 2025
Suspicious circumstances need not be proven on balance of probabilities: Manitoba Appeal Court
The doctrine of suspicious circumstances is not a new concept. Dating back to the English ecclesiastical courts before English law was adopted in Canada, typically suspicious circumstances were used to challenge the validity of wills. In recent years, however, a growing body of case law in Canada explores how suspicious circumstances can be applied in other contexts, resulting in a series of new decisions from the Manitoba Court of Appeal addressing the doctrine’s application to capacity to appoint an attorney for property (see Drewniak v. Smith, 2024 MBCA 86 and Henderson Estate (Re), 2024 MBCA 95) and capacity to enter a contract (see McLeod Estate v. Cole, 2022 MBCA 73).
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April 08, 2025
Joint Forum of Financial Market Regulators discuss responsible use of AI
Canadian financial market regulators from across multiple sectors wrapped up their annual meeting April 8 in Calgary after examining the growing use of artificial intelligence (AI) systems by market participants, among other issues.
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April 07, 2025
B.C. court certifies class action over public guardian’s failure to secure benefits for children in care
The B.C. Supreme Court has certified a class action against the province's Public Guardian and Trustee (PGT), alleging that it was negligent and breached its fiduciary duty to children in care by failing to obtain no-cost federal and provincial education benefits for them.