Courts mature in their approach to GAAR
September 28, 2020 | By Julius Melnitzer The Federal Court of Appeal’s decision in Canada v. Bank of Montreal (BMO) may represent a third-generation evolution of general anti-avoidance rule (GAAR) caselaw. “Initially, in cases like Canada v. Canadian Pacific Ltd., the courts were not really comfortable with the GAAR concept and uncertain how far it […]
Beware the pitfalls of employees working remotely from abroad
September 21, 2020 | By Julius Melnitzer There’s a new twist on the expatriate employee: one who wants to or has to move abroad, to a place where the employer has little if any presence – – – but is willing to do the job remotely. There’s also a variation on the theme. It comes […]
Artists desperate for legal help during COVID
September 21, 2020 | By Julius Melnitzer New research confirms that a multitude of legal challenges, aggravated by the “devastating” impact of COVID-19. faces the Canadian arts sector. “We wanted to prove to arts funders, like Canada Heritage and the Canada Council for the Arts (CCA), that there existed very pressing legal needs,” says Martha […]
UK court resolves COVID business interruption uncertainty
September 15, 2020 | By Julius Melnitzer A UK High Court decision has relieved uncertainties about insurance coverage for COVID-19 losses. The decision is not binding on Canadian courts. But it may provide considerable guidance here, where the situation has been no less uncertain. That’s because the court reviewed 21 different types of wording in […]
Canada’s privacy regime is a mess
September 11, 2020 | By Julius Melnitzer There’s a shroud hanging over the $9 million fine that the Competition Bureau imposed on Facebook in May. Facebook consented to the administrative monetary penalty, the largest privacy noncompliance fine imposed in Canada. Some observers tout it as a landmark conclusion to the Bureau’s two-year long investigation into […]
Pandemic data hubs and contractual, regulatory and ethical risks
Monday, May 11, 2020 One thing that hasn’t suffered from the COVID-19 pandemic is the big data analytics market — a development, however, that comes with a host of intellectual property (IP) and other legal issues. “The pandemic has accelerated the development of worldwide data hubs to collect data, and the development of software tools […]
Regulating cryptocurrency exchanges: Cleaner than cash
Friday, April 24, 2020 Unlike cash, central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), or national cryptocurrencies, are an excellent fit in a world where social distancing is the norm and disease outbreak prevention has moved to the forefront of societal concerns. “Because national cryptocurrencies are defined as legal tender from the get-go, there are no issues about […]
Regulating cryptocurrency exchanges: The courts struggle
Tuesday, March 24, 2020 Cryptocurrency remains, in many ways, a novel asset class. No surprise, then, that courts in many jurisdictions are still trying to figure out how their law applies to the phenomenon. “The overarching theme is whether cryptocurrency is property or not, and the answer depends on the cryptocurrency’s architecture,” said John Kim, […]
Regulating cryptocurrency exchanges: Unclear definitions
Tuesday, March 03, 2020 In this, the first of our three-part series examining legal developments in the cryptocurrency arena, we take a look at the state of cryptocurrency regulation in Canada and elsewhere. “The uncertainty about whether cryptocurrencies should be regulated as currency, commodities or securities continues both globally and especially in Canada,” said Lori […]
Rectification is not a ‘mulligan’ that can get companies out of taxation sand traps, Supreme Court says.
January 10, 2017 The Supreme Court of Canada is clamping down on the use of a legal tool that has allowed some taxpayers to lower their tax bills. In two separate decisions, one involving Fairmont Hotels and the other Jean Coutu, the Supreme Court has restricted access to a legal remedy called “rectification” to prevent […]