Commercial Litigation and Dispute Resolution Blog

A recent decision from the British Columbia Supreme Court is a reminder that interlocutory restraints on speech are possible in Canada, albeit in rare circumstances.

In Richardson v. Hunter, 2014 BCSC 1960, the court issued an interlocutory injunction to restrain the defendant from publishing words that suggest that the plaintiff engaged in criminal conduct. The remedy ...

The Supreme Court of Canada struck down the court hearing fees imposed by the province of British Columbia as being unconstitutional because they prevent access to the courts in a manner that is inconsistent with section 96 of the Constitution and the underlying principle of the rule of law.

The Case History

The SCC’s October 2, 2014 decision in Trial Lawyers ...

Choosing commercial arbitration over conventional litigation cannot guarantee confidentiality of the process, as a recent decision of the BC Supreme Court shows. The prospect of keeping a commercial dispute confidential has long been recognized as one of the main advantages of arbitration over litigation in the courts, along with the speed of the process, the ability to ...

Are submissions, evidence and statements made in a regulatory proceeding subject to the same protection of absolute privilege that applies in a court? Not always; it depends on the proceeding.

In Wilson v Williams, 2013 BCCA 471, the court held that absolute privilege did not apply to statements made in letters submitted by persons who had registered as interveners in a ...

Unlike the United States, Canada does not have a national securities regulator. In Canada, each province regulates securities through its own securities commission. One of the means of harmonizing securities regulation across the country is a provision in the securities legislation of each province that empowers its regulator to make an order (often referred to as a ...

Headlines in Canada have been dominated recently by allegations published by the Georgia Straight newspaper in Vancouver against John Furlong, the former CEO of the Vancouver Olympics.

The allegations are serious. They claim Furlong physically abused First Nation students when he was a teacher in Burns Lake, B.C. in 1969. In response, Furlong issued a statement denying ...

I opened an earlier blog post on the topic of defamation over Twitter with the hypothetical question, "How much damage can you do to a person’s reputation in 140 characters?"  Accordingly to Courtney Love's recent settlement of an infamous defamation action against her, the answer seems to be - well over US$400,000.

Former Hole frontwoman Courtney Love found herself ...

On October 28, 2010, a panel commissioned by the Ontario Attorney General delivered its report, recommending that the province enact legislation to address so-called strategic litigation against public participation or “SLAPP” suits.  The panel was chaired by Mayo Moran, the dean of the University of Toronto Faculty of Law.  According to the government’s press ...

The use of confidential sources by journalists – a topic first sensationalized when Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein broke the Watergate scandal – has remained a vexed issue for courts and legislatures ever since.  In R. v. National Post, 2010 SCC 16, the Supreme Court of Canada recently ruled against a constitutional right to protect ...

The brave new frontier for the law of defamation today is definitely social media, such as Facebook, Twitter and – yes – blogs too. The last couple of years have seen claims for defamation (libel) move from the traditional print and broadcast media to the Web 2.0, starting with Facebook. By way of background – in case you’re not one of its 500 million users – Facebook is ...