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Good evening,

Following are this week’s summaries of the civil decisions of the Court of Appeal for Ontario.

The headline decision this week is Toronto (City) v Ontario (Attorney General). Everyone will recall that the Better Local Government Act, 2018, passed shortly before the 2018 municipal election, reduced the number of wards from 47 to 25 in the middle of the election campaign. The City and others challenged the constitutionality of the change. After Belobaba J. declared the change unconstitutional for violating the freedom of expression, last year a three-member panel of the Court of Appeal stayed the lower court decision pending the appeal, permitting the election to proceed on the basis of 25 wards. On the appeal itself, four of the five members of the panel of the Court noted that the section 2(b) protection of expression does not extend to the effectiveness of the expression. The majority therefore concluded that the change mid-election was not unconstitutional. The majority also found that the application judge had improperly subsumed the right to vote into the right to freedom of expression. MacPherson JA dissented, and would have dismissed the appeal, finding that the freedom of expression had been violated.

Continue Reading COURT OF APPEAL SUMMARIES (SEPTEMBER 16-20)

Jump To: Table of Contents | Civil Decisions | Short Civil Decisions | Criminal Decisions | Ontario Review Board

Good afternoon.

It was a fairly busy week at the Court of Appeal, with the Court releasing twelve civil decisions, nine criminal and provincial offences decisions, and one Ontario Review Board decision.

Areas of law covered this week included agreements of purchase of sale of land, limitation periods, automobile insurance, personal injury, family, estates, contracts, employment and vexatious litigants.

Perhaps the most noteworthy decision of the week was Langenfeld v. Toronto Police Services Board. In that case, the Court overturned the decision below and held that the security measures put in place by Chief Saunders at the entrance to Toronto Police headquarters, while violating freedom of expression, were reasonable limits and justified under the Oakes Test.

Continue Reading BLANEY’S APPEALS: ONTARIO COURT OF APPEAL SUMMARIES (SEPTEMBER 9 – 13 2019)

Jump To: Table of Contents | Civil Decisions | Short Civil Decisions | Criminal and Provincial Offenses Decisions | Ontario Review Board

Good afternoon,

Following are this week’s summaries of the civil decisions of the Court of Appeal for Ontario.

In Hearn v McLeod Estate, the sale of a forged Norval Morrisseau painting and the expert evidence surrounding its authenticity was at issue. In allowing the appeal, the Court of Appeal held that the trial judge’s conclusions about the expert’s authentication process, which were informed by the trial judge’s own personal research, were flawed and had resulted in a denial of natural justice.

Continue Reading BLANEY’S APPEALS: ONTARIO COURT OF APPEAL SUMMARIES (SEPTEMBER 3 – 6 2019)