Residential Tenancies, Mental Disabilities, and Evictions

By: Jonnette Watson Hamilton

Case Commented On: AG obo ZG v FirstService Residential Alberta Ltd, 2022 AHRC 38 (CanLII)

PDF Version: Residential Tenancies, Mental Disabilities, and Evictions

This case concerns a challenge to an eviction from a rented condominium – a challenge claiming the eviction discriminated against a tenant’s child on the ground of mental disability. There is something wrong with this decision to confirm the Director’s dismissal of the tenant’s complaint. The conclusion that there was no reasonable basis in the evidence to proceed to a hearing does not follow from the facts that are recounted. This may simply be because all the relevant facts are not set out in the decision. But based on the facts that are summarized, the most plausible –perhaps the only possible – inference is that the tenancy was terminated because the tenant’s son had a mental disability that the landlord, building manager, and other residents of the condominium building thought meant the son would endanger them or their property in the future, and no accommodation was possible. Continue reading →

Procedural Fairness When Challenging Timeline Extensions for Freedom of Information Requests

By: Drew Yewchuk

Decision Commented On: Re Energy, Order F2022-20, 2022 CanLII 29391 (AB OIPC)

PDF Version: Procedural Fairness When Challenging Timeline Extensions For Freedom of Information Requests

Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner (OIPC) Order F2022-20 shows how easy it is for public bodies to drag the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act, RSA 2000, c F-25 (FOIP) process out to prevent timely transparency, even where there is little or no plausible justification for the public body to withhold records.

F2022-20 relates to the same FOIP request as Blades v Alberta (Information and Privacy Commissioner), 2021 ABQB 725 (CanLII) (Blades), a decision I wrote about here. The request in question is an attempt to get government records explaining the Alberta government’s decision to revoke the 1976 Coal Development Policy for Alberta. Continue reading →

Choice vs Coercive Control: The Alberta Court of Appeal Decision in R v Naslund

By: Jennifer Koshan

PDF Version: Choice vs Coercive Control: The Alberta Court of Appeal Decision in R v Naslund

Case Commented On: R v Naslund, 2022 ABCA 6 (CanLII)

In January 2022, a majority of the Alberta Court of Appeal overturned a joint sentencing submission in the appeal of Helen Naslund, a woman who killed her husband after she sustained decades of his abuse. The sentencing decision of Justice Sterling Sanderman accepted the joint submission by the Crown and defence of 18 years imprisonment for the offence of manslaughter. This sentence was notorious for having imposed one of the longest known sentences for a survivor of intimate partner violence (IPV) who resorts to homicide. The sentencing decision was unreported, but quickly gained media attention and led to a petition to overturn the sentence imposed on Ms. Naslund. Writing for a majority of the Court of Appeal, Justice Sheila Greckol (Justice Kevin Feehan concurring, Justice Thomas Wakeling dissenting) reduced Ms. Naslund’s sentence to 9 years imprisonment. Continue reading →

Is the Act respecting First Nations, Inuit and Métis children, youth and families Constitutional?

By: Robert Hamilton

PDF Version: ­­Is the Act respecting First Nations, Inuit and Métis children, youth and families Constitutional? 

Case Commented On: Reference to the Court of Appeal of Quebec in relation with the Act respecting First Nations, Inuit and Métis children, youth and families, 2022 QCCA 185 (CanLII) [quotations from the unofficial English translation]

Legislation Commented On: Act respecting First Nations, Inuit and Métis children, youth and families, SC 2019, c 24

The Act respecting First Nations, Inuit and Métis children, youth and families, SC 2019, c 24, [the Act] received royal assent on June 21, 2019, and came into force on January 1, 2020. The Act was developed over two years and through wide-ranging consultations. It is designed to gradually transfer control of child and family services to Indigenous nations and, through this, to ensure that fewer Indigenous children are removed from their families and communities. The intention is to mitigate the effects of the assimilationist policies that have been incredibly harmful to Indigenous children, families, and communities. The Act seeks to accomplish this by establishing national standards for the provision of child and family services and by providing a mechanism through which Indigenous laws – that is, the laws of Indigenous nations themselves – can take priority over inconsistent federal and provincial laws and govern the delivery of child and family services to Indigenous peoples (Reference to the Court of Appeal of Quebec in relation with the Act respecting First Nations, Inuit and Métis children, youth and families, 2022 QCCA 185 (CanLII), paras 4-5 [Reference]). Although it has faced thoughtful and considered criticism, it is clear the Act seeks to substantially change how child and family services are provided and to transition the governance and regulation of those services to Indigenous peoples. Continue reading →

Access to Digital Assets by Fiduciaries

By: Stella Varvis

PDF Version: Access to Digital Assets by Fiduciaries

Matter Commented On: the Uniform Access to Digital Assets by Fiduciaries Act

The email from your brother about spring break. Photos from prospective online dates stored on your phone. Restaurant reviews posted on your WordPress blog. Your Airmiles travel points. Your Venmo payment account. Your Bitcoin wallet.

You may own more digital assets than you realize. In fact, estimates suggest that the average Canadian has digital assets with a stored electronic value of approximately $10,000 (See Noor Ibrahim, “Does your social media profile belong in your will? Why Canadians should plan their ‘digital inheritance’ now” (26 Nov 2021)). But what happens to your digital assets if you die or become incapacitated? Who has the right to access your digital assets? And what can be done if an online service provider in another jurisdiction denies access? Continue reading →