ABLawg

By: Nigel Bankes

PDF Version: An Unseverable Joint Tenancy: Intentions of the Donor or a Question of Law?

Case Commented On: Pohl v Midtal, 2017 ABQB 711 (CanLII)

In this decision Justice Rita Khullar concludes that when a parent makes an inter vivos gift of interest as a joint tenant in real property to an adult child, that gift may include an irrevocable right of survivorship. While there is a presumption that the donor has retained the power to sever during the donor’s lifetime, this presumption may be rebutted based on the expressed intentions of the donor. In this case the presumption was rebutted. In reaching these conclusions Justice Khullar relies heavily on the decision of the Supreme Court of Canada in Pecore v Pecore, 2007 SCC 17 (CanLII), a case dealing with a joint bank account.

ABlawg: Year in Review, 2017

By Admin

On December 20, 2017

In Blogs and Websites

By: ABlawg Writers

PDF Version: ABlawg: Year in Review, 2017

As we take stock of the year that was, ABlawg is pleased to provide our highlights from 2017, consisting of some statistics and a roundup of our bloggers’ contributions in substantive areas of law this past year.

The Numbers

ABlawg has published 156 posts so far in 2017. The post that generated the most hits this year was Alice Woolley’s The Incarcerated Complainant: Submissions to the Minister of Justice, with 2539 views overall (and see a second post on the same case here). Close behind were Jennifer Koshan’s post Another Workplace Death Illustrates the Need for More Enhanced Protections for Farm Workers with 2290 views, and Martin Olszynski’s post In the Growing Wave of Climate Litigation, Could the Automobile Industry be Next? with 2183 views. Overall, six ABlawg posts had more than 2000 views in 2017 (see also Drew Yewchuk, R v Cody: The Supreme Court Stands Their Ground on Unreasonable Delay, Jennifer Koshan, Sexual Assault, Starting Points, and Court of Appeal Panel Composition: A Chilling Effect on Individualized Sentencing? and Jonnette Watson Hamilton, When are Late Payment of Rent Charges in Residential Tenancies Unenforceable?).

ABlawg’s Clawbie Nominations for 2017

By Admin

On December 19, 2017

In Blogs and Websites

In this year where we marked the 150^th anniversary of the Canadian federation – for all its flaws and omissions – ABlawg nominates a number of Canadian law blogs with a constitutional / public law focus:

Rights Watch Blog from the Canadian Civil Liberties Association and Pro Bono Students Canada – a prolific group effort.
Double Aspect, with which our colleague Jonnette Watson Hamilton engaged in her post The Potential Impact of a Quebec Superior Court Challenge on Access to Justice in Alberta.
Robson Crim, another terrific group-based blog that has attracted high profile criminal law profs from across the country.
National Self-Represented Litigants Project (NSRLP) Blog, which finished a strong year with posts about access to justice for survivors of sexual violence and a compelling post on SRLs with disabilities.
Reconciliation Syllabus, which we also nominated last year, and which continues to keep us thinking about the path to reconciliation, especially in this year of celebrations of “Canada 150”.
Although it does not focus on public law exclusively, we also nominate The Court, which has a really nice new look.

Thanks to all Canadian law bloggers for a wonderful and stimulating year of reading! #clawbies2017

A Questionable Equity: Rectification and Tax Avoidance

By Drew Yewchuk

On December 18, 2017

In Contracts, Tax

By: Drew Yewchuk

PDF Version: A Questionable Equity: Rectification and Tax Avoidance

Case Commented On: Harvest Operations Corp. v Attorney General of Canada, 2017 ABCA 393 (CanLII)

Harvest Operations Corp. v Attorney General of Canada (Harvest Operations Corp. CA) is a case about an elaborate but unsuccessful tax avoidance maneuver and an attempt to get contract rectification. The details of the attempted tax avoidance are unreasonably complicated, and so I will focus on the facts necessary for the rectification issue (if you want to learn how to correctly perform the “bump transaction” method of avoiding capital gains tax, this post will not help you).

Court Confirms that Good Faith Fulfilment of Modern Treaties is Essential to the Project of Reconciliation

By Nigel Bankes

On December 14, 2017

In Aboriginal

By: Nigel Bankes

PDF Version: Court Confirms that Good Faith Fulfilment of Modern Treaties is Essential to the Project of Reconciliation

Case Commented On: First Nation of Nacho Nyak Dun v Yukon, 2017 SCC 58 (CanLII)

In this unanimous decision authored by Justice Karakatsanis, the Supreme Court of Canada confirmed what seems like an obvious proposition, namely that good faith fulfilment of modern treaties is a necessary condition for the project of reconciliation. The Court concluded that the land use planning process established by the Yukon Final Agreements permitted Yukon to modify a Recommended Final Plan (in this case the Peel Watershed Regional Land Use Plan), but that the power to modify did not include the power to change a Plan “so significantly as to effectively reject it” (at para 39). More specifically, Yukon’s power to modify was confined by the scope of the issues that it had raised during the planning process; it could not raise significant new issues although it could respond to changing circumstances. As a result, Yukon’s purported approval of the Plan was invalid (at para 35).