One Great Case

Short term rentals (STRs) have put residents and investors at odds all over Canada, but Tiny Township in Ontario recently took center stage. The Court of Appeal dismissed an appeal from an application judge’s decision regarding the validity of a By-Law that regulated STRs. The dismissal upheld municipalities’ broad authority to regulate STRs through licensing, without crossing the line into zoning...

How much privacy is too much? The Court of Appeal recently granted a motion, in part, that will be the standard for sexual assault cases, using the Sherman Estate framework. The implications are especially critical in sexual violence cases, where litigation itself can be re-traumatizing for the victim. The case is B.E. v. O.R., 2026 ONCA 501 and to dive into this decision, I reached out to Anna Ma...

Can historic family law obligations continue to have consequences after death through Part V of the Succession Law Reform Act? A recent case touched on that question, causing a stir in the estates litigation community. The lawyer at the center of the issue is fielding calls from fellow lawyers, who themselves are fielding calls from people seeking to use this decision. But did this decision create...

What happens when the law defines a dog owner more broadly than most people realize? Under Ontario’s Dog Owners’ Liability Act, a person may be treated as a dog’s owner simply because they have temporary possession or control of the animal. That can include a professional dog walker, a friend taking someone else’s dog for a walk, or a neighbour asked to care for it while the actual owner is away....

For decades, family lawyers have represented clients whose abuse was not defined by one isolated incident, but by a pattern of control: financial abuse, isolation, humiliation, threats, physical violence, and the slow erosion of autonomy inside the home. The problem was that tort law did not always know how to capture that kind of harm. Claims like assault, battery, and intentional infliction of m...

On paper, defamation law looks simple: a false statement is published, a reputation is harmed, and the courts step in to address the damage. The internet has changed that equation. Today, some of the most damaging allegations spread through social media, where accusations can move faster than facts, especially when misinformation about LGBTQ+ people and organizations begins circulating online. Two...

We like to believe that contempt of court is simple: you break the rules, face the consequences, and if you comply, you earn your way back out. The law, we tell ourselves, is precise, structured, and fair. But what happens when the very order meant to restore accountability becomes the trap itself? This case, Chiang (Trustee of) v. Chiang, forces us to confront a deeply uncomfortable reality: that...

We tend to think of history’s great atrocities as moral failures that are obvious in hindsight. Evil acts, evil people, and clear lines between right and wrong. But the harder question (which still haunts legal systems today) is this: how do you turn moral certainty into legal accountability when the law itself doesn’t yet exist? That question has been back in public conversation recently with the...

Most people imagine undue influence as overt manipulation: a domineering child, a vulnerable parent, and a will that suddenly changes. But the reality, undue influence often looks like routine caregiving.  That’s what made Abbruzzese v Tucci so striking. At first glance, it looked like a typical estate dispute. Instead, what emerged was a rare, almost textbook convergence of every factor liti...

When we think of ballet, we think of grace, discipline, and the pursuit of perfection, not precedent-setting litigation. But within the walls of elite ballet institutions, the pursuit of perfection can blur into something darker: a culture of hierarchy, obedience, and silence. That silence is what made this case possible. Behind the curtain of one of Canada’s most prestigious ballet schools, a sto...

On paper, SEPUSAC v. 9706151 Canada Limited seemed like a routine mortgage enforcement dispute. A borrower defaulted, the lender sold the properties, and the matter looked destined for the standard path of foreclosure.  But the case quickly revealed itself to be anything but ordinary. What unfolded over the next seven years exposed how vulnerable Ontario’s mortgage enforcement framework can b...

Long before the lawsuits, there was the story that captivated the world. Bre-X Minerals, a penny stock based in Calgary, claimed to have discovered the largest gold deposit in history deep in the jungles of Indonesia. Almost overnight, its market value soared into the billions, drawing in banks, governments, and some of the biggest players in mining. The frenzy was intoxicating. Ordinary investors...

A gold discovery that never was. Billions in market value wiped out. Investors are demanding answers, and banks are facing claims that could shake confidence in the entire financial system. The Bre-X scandal didn’t end when the gold vanished. In many ways, that’s when the real battle began. With billions lost and reputations in ruins, the courts became the new arena. The question was no longer whe...

A podcast about law to learn more about people. Every episode goes behind the scenes of a case with the lawyer who argued it, and sometimes the judge who decided it. You may ask, what makes for a great case? It might be novel, it might move the needle on a point of law, it might be shocking, or frivolous, or high profile. Maybe you’ve heard of it, maybe you haven’t. But behind each case are the pe...