By: Linda McKay-Panos
PDF Version: Private Health Insurance and Charter Section 7
Case discussed: Allen v Alberta, 2014 ABQB 184
Over the past few years, various courts across Canada have addressed the ambit of the Charter right to life, liberty and security of the person in the context of access to private health insurance. Allen v Alberta, 2014 ABQB 184 (“Allen”) is Alberta’s recent case on this issue.
By: Shaun Fluker
PDF Version: What Happens When an Insolvent Energy Company Fails to Pay its Rent to a Landowner?
Decision commented on: Petroglobe v Lemke, 2014 ABSRB 401
The law in Alberta provides an energy company with the right of surface access on private lands to drill for oil and gas. This access allows the company, among other things, to construct an access road and clear lands for the well site. In most cases, the company and the landowner enter into a surface lease whereby the company agrees to pay rent in exchange for this access. In other cases, surface access is governed by a Right of Entry Order issued by the Alberta Surface Rights Board (website) whereby the company obtains access in exchange for the payment of rent. This case is about what happens when an insolvent company fails to pay its rent.
By: Nigel Bankes
PDF Version: Leave to Intervene Denied in an Appeal of an Important Freehold Oil and Gas Lease Case
Case commented on: Stewart Estate (Re), 2014 ABCA 222
The Freehold Petroleum and Natural Gas Owners Association (FHOA) applied for leave to intervene in the appeal of the Calder or Stewart Estate litigation (for my post on the trial decision see here). Justice Patricia Rowbotham dismissed the application commenting at the end of her reasons that if FHOA had jurisprudence that it wished to bring to the attention of the Court it could always do so by passing relevant authorities on to the appellants’ counsel.
By: Martin Olszynski
PDF Version: The ‘Inherent Limit’ Post-Tsilhqot’in: Where Indigenous Law and Land-Use Planning Meet
Case commented on: Tsilhqot’in Nation v British Columbia, 2014 SCC 44
The focus of this post, the fourth in a series of ABlawg posts on the Supreme Court of Canada’s Tsilhqot’in decision (see here, here,and here), is the concept of the “inherent limit” pursuant to which Aboriginal title lands “cannot be used in a manner that is irreconcilable with the nature of the claimants’ attachment to those lands” (Delgamuukw v. British Columbia, [1997] 3 SCR 1010, at para 125). From conversations with my colleagues here at the law school, there appear to be at least three concerns about this aspect of Aboriginal title law: that it is paternalistic, that it has never been satisfactorily sourced or rooted in indigenous laws (a complaint going back to Delgamuukw), and that it creates uncertainty for development. In this post, I propose an approach to what the Chief Justice in Tsilhqot’in described as the “negative proposition” (at para 15) that addresses each of these concerns (perhaps especially the latter two), while also addressing a more general concern with respect to Canadian Aboriginal law, which is to say the absence of any role for indigenous laws.
By: Sarah Burton
PDF Version: Striking a Balance: Efficiency and Fairness in an Evolving Justice System
Case commented on: Martin v. Sievers, 2014 ABQB 357 (CanLII)
In Martin v. Sievers, 2014 ABQB 357 (Martin), Master Smart confirmed that lawyers control the flow of relevant documents in an Independent Medical Examination (IME). This persists despite a more efficient mechanism for hired experts to access a party’s full medical record. Martin stands for the proposition that the “cultural shift” towards efficiency in the courtroom cannot sacrifice long-standing quality protections for the justice system (at paras 10, 12). Viewed from an access to justice perspective, Martin held that increasing access should not sacrifice justice in the process. Continue reading
