Cases Considered: Andriet v. County of Strathcona No. 20, 2008 ABCA 27
PDF Version: Andriet v. County of Strathcona No. 20: Court of Appeal Conjures a Creative Accretion Approach
In this important reserved judgment, the Alberta Court of Appeal applied a creative approach to attempt to reconcile uncertainties relating to common law accretion with a Torrens Land Titles system, and in doing so once again found for private ownership of accreted lands over Crown ownership of exposed beds and shores.
PDF Version: The Federal Government’s Climate Change Policy and the Role of Carbon Capture and Storage
In April 2007 the federal government introduced a new greenhouse gas policy, Regulatory Framework for Air Emissions. On March 10, 2008, it tabled a series of additional documents: (1) Taking Action to Fight Climate Change, (2) Regulatory Framework for Industrial Greenhouse Gas Emissions, (3) Canada’s Offset System for Greenhouse Gases, (4) Canada’s Credit for Early Action Program, and (5) Detailed Emissions and Economic Modelling (all available here). These documents provide further guidance and detail on the implementation of the April 2007 proposals. Further details will be provided when the promised regulations appear in draft form but that will not happen before the fall of 2008.
Cases Considered: United Nurses of Alberta, Local 33 v. Capital Health Authority (Royal Alexandra), 2008 ABQB 126
PDF Version: Employment and Disability: Some of the Challenges
The recent decision of Justice D.A. Sulyma in United Nurses of Alberta, Local 33 v. Capital Health Authority (Royal Alexandra) provides insight into the challenges faced by both an employer and an employee in accommodating a disability in the workplace. The employer seeks information about the disability and how it should be accommodated, while the employee seeks to protect his or her privacy, in addition to an accommodation of the disability. The court must sort these issues out while also determining whether the employee has a disability.
Cases Considered: Wheeler v. 1000128 Alberta Ltd., 2008 ABQB 70,
PDF Version: Jurisdiction In Personam and the Rules for Service Ex Juris
Introduction
Wheeler v. 1000128 Alberta Ltd., 2008 ABQB 70, was a complicated case in which the plaintiff alleged that he, and other members of a proposed class, had incurred losses as a result of the breach by the various defendants of the insider trading rules under Alberta’s Securities Act, R.S.A. 2000, c. S-4. More specifically, the plaintiff alleged that, in a series of steps, China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), acting through its subsidiaries, and in particular 1000128 Alberta Ltd. (Alberta Co.), purchased the shares of PetroKazakhstan Inc. (PKZ), an international energy company with its head office in Calgary. He further alleged that, in the course of these steps, various of the defendants, with the knowledge of and in conspiracy with the other defendants, became aware of, acted upon, and disclosed to Alberta Co. certain material facts in breach of the Securities Act. According to the plaintiff, Alberta Co. then used this information to purchase shares in PKZ with money supplied by CNPC International Ltd. (CNPCI), a subsidiary of CNPC.
Cases Considered: R. v. Ferguson, 2008 SCC 6
The death of 23 year old Darren Varley in the custody of the RCMP in Pincher Creek made headlines in October 1999. Varley was shot by an RCMP officer, Constable Michael Ferguson, who was charged with second-degree murder but eventually convicted by a jury of the lesser offence of manslaughter after a four week trial in 2004 (2 earlier trials having resulted in hung juries). Justice G.C. Hawco of the Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench granted Ferguson a constitutional exemption from s. 236(a) of the Criminal Code, which imposed a mandatory minimum sentence of four years for manslaughter with a firearm, and granted a conditional sentence of two years less one day (2004 ABQB 928). The Crown appealed, and a majority of the Alberta Court of Appeal held that the mandatory minimum sentence could not be avoided (2006 ABCA 261). Constable Ferguson appealed to the Supreme Court of Canada, which dismissed his appeal on February 29, 2008.
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