Real Estate Law Blog

Likely because the application of the law is uncertain, commercial leases generally have detailed clauses dealing with the question of when a piece of equipment or an improvement installed in a premises becomes a fixture or remains a chattel.  The answer matters as fixtures, in law, are considered to be part of the land and, at the end of a lease, ordinarily would revert to the ...

Last year I blogged about a Nanaimo commercial tenant who defeated her landlord’s claim for unpaid rent on the grounds the lease had been fundamentally breached as a result of a pervasive odour.  Neither the landlord, nor the tenant could find the source of the smell though it was related to the HVAC system.  The odour was adversely affecting the tenant’s retail ...

Today, the Supreme Court of Canada released another important Aboriginal law decision, Keewatin v. Ontario (Natural Resources), 2014 SCC 48. The decision confirms the power of Ontario, along with other provincial governments, to manage natural resources over lands subject to numbered treaties. Treaty 3 is one of the historical, numbered treaties entered into ...

On June 26, 2014, the Supreme Court of Canada (“SCC”) released its much anticipated decision on Aboriginal title in the Tsilhqot’in case and surprised many by granting the Tsilhqot’in Nation a declaration of Aboriginal title to approximately 200,000 hectares (2,000 km²) of land.

The Tsilhqot’in case is the first case decided by the SCC granting ...