Supreme Court Denies Equality Claimants Leave to Appeal Insurance Cap

By: Jennifer Koshan

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Case Commented On: Morrow v Zhang, 2009 ABCA 215, leave to appeal dismissed by S.C.C. December 17, 2009

The Supreme Court has denied Peari Morrow and Brea Pederson leave to appeal the Alberta Court of Appeal ruling that upheld the province’s cap on non-pecuniary damages for soft tissue injuries incurred in motor vehicle accidents. Previous posts on ABlawg critiqued the Court of Appeal decision for (1) failing to apply the new approach to equality rights set down in R v Kapp, 2008 SCC 41, (2) improperly applying the old approach to equality rights from Law v Canada, Minister of Employment and Immigration), [1999] 1 S.C.R. 497, (3) giving insufficient weight to evidence of stereotyping in relation to victims of minor tissue injuries, and (4) giving too much weight to the purpose of the law at the expense of its effects on those victims (see Some Questions about the Decision to Reinstate the Cap on Damages for Soft Tissue Injuries and More Questions about the Decision to Reinstate the Cap on Damages for Soft Tissue Injuries).

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Is every vendor of land an “unpaid vendor”?

Case considered: 1279017 Alberta Ltd. v. 1257613 Alberta Ltd., 2009 ABCA 364

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In 1279017 Alberta Ltd. v. 1257613 Alberta Ltd., the Alberta Court of Appeal split 2:1 on the question of whether 1257613 Alberta Ltd. had an interest in land that would support the caveat and certificate of lis pendens that it had filed against an 80 acre parcel of land registered in the name of 1279017 Alberta Ltd. The vendor’s interest in land was said to be an unpaid vendor’s lien that arose as a result of a real estate purchase contract between 1257613 and 1279017. Had the dissenting opinion of Mr. Justice J.D. Bruce McDonald prevailed in this case, virtually every vendor of land, paid in full or not, would be an unpaid vendor and entitled to caveat another’s land. Fortunately, the majority position of Madam Justice Constance Hunt and Mr. Justice Keith Ritter won through. The unpaid vendor’s lien only continued until payment by the purchaser.

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Court of Queen’s Bench Overturns Panel Decision in Boissoin v. Lund

Case considered: Boissoin v. Lund, 2009 ABQB 592

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Justice Earl Wilson of the Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench recently overturned the Human Rights Panel decision, which found that Mr. Stephen Boissoin and the Concerned Christian Coalition Inc. had, in a letter to the editor of a newspaper published June 17, 2002, expressed comments likely to expose gay persons to hatred and/or contempt due to their sexual orientation. See my earlier ABlawg posts on the Panel decision and the remedy decision.

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Court upholds Alberta’s Hate Speech Law

Case considered: Boissoin v. Lund, 2009 ABQB 592

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Back in September, I predicted the failure of a constitutional challenge to Alberta’s hate speech law, section 3 of the Human Rights, Citizenship and Multiculturalism Act, R.S.A. 2000, c. H-14 (HRCMA) (recently re-enacted as the Alberta Human Rights Act, R.S.A. 2000, c. A-25.5). The law was challenged by Stephen Boissoin on both division of powers and Charter grounds as part of his effort to overturn an earlier decision of the Alberta Human Rights Panel which found that Boissoin had engaged in hate speech for his letter to the editor “Homosexual Agenda Wicked”, published in the Red Deer Advocate. On December 3, 2009 Justice Earl Wilson of the Court of Queen’s Bench upheld the constitutionality of section 3. However, he also found that Boissoin’s publication did not amount to hate speech under that section. I will deal with the constitutional issues in this post; Linda McKay Panos will be posting on the interpretive issues.

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Further Developments in the Cassels FOIPPA Matter

Case considered:  Edmonton Police Service v. Alberta (Information and Privacy Commissioner), 2009 ABQB 593

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Recent developments in the case of Cassels highlight a difficulty faced by many people who request access to information held by public bodies. Since one is hoping to gain access to the desired information, one has to “guess” wisely about what information to ask for, from which department and in which format (e.g., electronic or paper). The agencies from which one requests information are not obligated under the law to create new records from their information, nor to incur great inconvenience and expense in order to provide the requested information. Thus, the wording of the request becomes very important-even in the absence of specific knowledge about what information is available.

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