By: Jennifer Koshan
Case Commented On: LeClair v MacDonald, 2026 NSCA 18 (CanLII)
PDF Version: Limitations Laws and Gender-Based Violence Torts
The Supreme Court of Canada is currently considering whether to accept a new tort of family violence. Ahluwalia v Ahluwalia was argued in February 2025 and the Court’s decision is anxiously awaited by family law and torts lawyers and professors, anti-violence advocates, and survivors of family violence. As Deanne Sowter and I wrote in an ABlawg post in September 2023, this new tort was initially recognized by the Ontario Superior Court and then rejected by the Ontario Court of Appeal (see Ahluwalia v Ahluwalia, 2022 ONSC 1303 (CanLII); 2023 ONCA 476 (CanLII)). The Court of Appeal’s rationale was that the existing torts of assault, battery, and intentional infliction of mental distress (IIMD) covered the conduct at issue in Ahluwalia, so it was unnecessary to recognize a new tort. Courts in Alberta have followed the ONCA decision and denied claims for the tort of family violence where other torts were available (see e.g. Colenutt v Colenutt, 2023 ABKB 562 (CanLII)).