By: Jassmine Girgis
Case commented on: Wisser v CEM International Management Consultants Ltd, 2022 ABQB 414 (CanLII)
PDF Version: The Oppression Remedy Tests: Oppression v Unfair Prejudice & Unfair Disregard
This blog broadly addresses how creditors can utilize the oppression remedy. It includes a specific discussion on the three tests in the oppression remedy. It will not address the issue of severance.
By: Lorian Hardcastle and Shaun Fluker
Decision commented on: CM v Alberta, 2022 ABKB 716 (See here for the decision, which was not on CanLII as of the date of writing)
In the winter of 2022, the Alberta government repealed the bulk of its COVID-19 public health measures in an effort to be among the first provinces to re-open. On February 8, 2022, the Premier announced that children would no longer be required to mask in school and, on that same day, the Minister of Education (Adriana LaGrange) issued a written statement that “school boards will not be empowered by provincial health order or recommendations from the CMOH to require ECS – grade 12 students to be masked to attend school in person or to ride a school bus.”
By: David Laidlaw
Matter Commented on: Lower Athabasca Regional Plan
PDF Version: Lower Athabasca Regional Plan 10-Year Review Part 2: Alberta’s Regional Plan Development
In the development of regional plans, Alberta appoints selected stakeholders to provide advice in the form of a Regional Advisory Council (RAC) in conjunction with opportunities for public consultation, with the provincial Cabinet making the final regional plan, as set out in Part 1 of this post.
By: Charlotte Dalwood
Cases Commented On: Hansman v Neufeld, 2021 BCCA 222 (CanLII); Todsen v Morse, 2022 BCSC 1341 (CanLII)
PDF Version: Anti-SLAPP Legislation and Non-Justiciable Issues: A Consideration of Hansman v Neufeld and Todsen v Morse
Earlier this year, the Supreme Court granted leave to appeal in the decision Hansman v Neufeld, 2021 BCCA 222 (CanLII) (Neufeld). The case concerns an application under the Protection of Public Participation Act, SBC 2019, c 3 (PPPA) to dismiss a defamation action as a “SLAPP”: a “Strategic Lawsuit against Public Participation”. Later this year, the British Columbia Supreme Court considered another application under the PPPA, likewise to dismiss a defamation action, in Todsen v Morse, 2022 BCSC 1341 (CanLII) (Todsen).
By: Lisa Silver
Case Commented On: R v Schneider, 2022 SCC 34 (CanLII)
PDF Version: What Did You Say? Making Sense of the Admissibility of Evidence in R v Schneider
The law of evidence gets a bad rap. Too often, I hear lawyers muse that the rules of evidence are to be learned by rote and applied strictly. Evidence, if you know the rules, is simply a matter of application. There’s no magic, so the naysayers say, when it comes to evidence; it is what is, or it isn’t. The rules cannot change facts, nor can they create them. As a teacher and connoisseur of the law of evidence, I disagree. Evidentiary principles are built on legal and factual relationships that can be complex and intriguing. There is a hidden joy to those rules and principles. Yet, at the same time, evidentiary rules can revel in incongruities and blurry lines. This is why when the Supreme Court of Canada releases a decision on the law of evidence, we rule-lovers (or rule-breakers – perspective is everything when it comes to evidence) sit up and take notice. The most recent evidence decision in R v Schneider, 2022 SCC 34 (CanLII), is one such case offering clarity and opaqueness, laying down principles and applications, creating agreement and dissent, and all in all a package reminiscent of an old-fashioned “whodunnit”. In short, by trying to make sense of those rules, we find them to be much more nuanced, engaging, and personal than we expected. In this blog post, we will take out the old magnifying glass to analyze the Schneider decision to see where the drama lies when the Supreme Court of Canada tries to make sense of the rules surrounding the admissibility of evidence. In doing so, I will be laying down some “rules” or propositions of my own.
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