Category Archives: Provincial Court

Edmonton’s Encampment Litigation: A View from the Inside

Matter Commented On: Edmonton’s Encampment Litigation

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In the autumn of 2023, the Coalition for Justice and Human Rights sued the City of Edmonton to limit when and how it forcibly evicts unhoused people from encampments. The Coalition argued that the City’s approach to displacing encampments violated the human rights of encampment residents, as protected by Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms. A court dismissed the Coalition’s claim on a preliminary ground, deciding that the lawsuit should be brought by someone else, and thus the Court did not decide whether the City’s displacement policies infringed the Charter. The case illustrates the difficulties of vindicating the rights of marginalized persons through the courts, raising the troubling prospect that our unhoused neighbours may in theory have the same fundamental rights as the rest of Canadians, but in practice are unable to exercise them.

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Seismic Shift: The Notwithstanding Clause and Litigation on the Rights of Trans and Gender Diverse Youth

By: Jennifer Koshan

Case Commented On: UR Pride Centre for Sexuality and Gender Diversity v Government of Saskatchewan, 2024 SKKB 23 (CanLII)

PDF Version: Seismic Shift: The Notwithstanding Clause and Litigation on the Rights of Trans and Gender Diverse Youth

ABlawg has been following the introduction of government restrictions aimed at trans and gender diverse youth since last fall (see here and here). The latest development comes from Saskatchewan, where on February 16, the Court of King’s Bench permitted a constitutional challenge by UR Pride to proceed despite the government having invoked the notwithstanding clause in section 33 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Continue reading →

Family Violence Torts and Their Limits in Alberta

By: Jennifer Koshan

Case Commented On: Colenutt v Colenutt, 2023 ABKB 562 (CanLII)

PDF Version: Family Violence Torts and Their Limits in Alberta

In September 2023, Deanne Sowter and I wrote an ABlawg post on the tort of family violence, which was initially recognized as a new tort by the Ontario Superior Court and then rejected by the Court of Appeal, along with the alternative tort of coercive control (see Ahluwalia v Ahluwalia, 2022 ONSC 1303 (CanLII) (Ahluwalia ONSC); 2023 ONCA 476 (CanLII) (Ahluwalia ONCA)). An Alberta court has now followed the Ontario Court of Appeal in holding that the torts of family violence and coercive control should not be accepted in this province. This post considers Justice Debra Yungwirth’s reasons in Colenutt v Colenutt, 2023 ABKB 562 (CanLII), including limitations issues that arose in the case and the need for legislative reform. Continue reading →

British Columbia Free Entry Mining System Triggers Duty to Consult and Must Change: Gitxaala v British Columbia (Chief Gold Commissioner)

By: David V. Wright

Case Commented On: Gitxaala v British Columbia (Chief Gold Commissioner), 2023 BCSC 1680 (CanLII)

PDF Version: British Columbia Free Entry Mining System Triggers Duty to Consult and Must Change: Gitxaala v British Columbia (Chief Gold Commissioner)

The Supreme Court of British Columbia (BCSC) recently ruled that the existing mineral tenure system in the province triggers provincial Crown obligations to consult First Nations. While the duty to consult is now a relatively mature area of law in Canada that is “replete with indicia for what constitutes meaningful consultation” (Coldwater First Nation v Canada (Attorney General), 2020 FCA 34 (CanLII) at para 41), some areas of uncertainty remain. This case dealt with one such long-standing question: does British Columbia’s “free entry” mineral tenure regime trigger the Crown’s duty to consult? This post discusses the findings of the court and briefly comments on implications of the decision for BC and the rest of Canada. My colleague Nigel Bankes recently wrote a post on the aspect of this decision pertaining to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (here), and my other colleague, Dr. Elizabeth Steyn, will soon publish a post on the sacred sites dimension of the decision. Continue reading →

Worrying About Reclamation and Abandonment Obligations in the Context of Property Assignment Consents

By: Nigel Bankes and Drew Yewchuk

Case commented on: Canadian Natural Resources Limited v Harvest Operations Corp, 2023 ABKB 62 (CanLII)

PDF Version: Worrying About Reclamation and Abandonment Obligations in the Context of Property Assignment Consents

This decision is principally about when a court can or should grant partial summary judgment. For that reason alone, we anticipate that it will be appealed. But the underlying concern that led to this litigation was (and still is) the decision of Canadian Natural Resources Limited (CNRL) to contest assignments pursuant to a purchase and sale agreement (PSA) between Harvest Operations as the vendor and Spoke Resources as the purchaser. CNRL and Harvest were parties to some 170 agreements affected by the PSA, including 133 land agreements, 30 facility agreements, and 7 service agreements. Continue reading →