Personal Property and Securities Law

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Business Restructuring During COVID-19: Estate Freezes

  • June 10, 2020
  • Nancy E. Claridge and Luis R. Chacin, Carters Professional Corporation

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected businesses tremendously. Many are feeling the effects of a significant drop in the market values of almost all asset classes, including real property and private equity. However, as this article explains, these lower asset values may provide a timely opportunity for companies to make fundamental changes to the corporate structure of their business through estate freezes.

Business Law, Student Forum

Price Gouging in a Pandemic – What Canadian provinces are doing to stop it

  • May 21, 2020
  • Denes Rothschild and Devin Persaud, Borden Ladner Gervais LLP

Traditionally, recourse under Canadian laws for excessive pricing was limited to provincial consumer protection legislation in a minority of provinces. More recently, however, concern about price gouging in the context of the COVID-19 outbreak has led to renewed interest in excessive pricing regulation and, in Canada’s most populous province, the introduction of new powers under emergency response legislation to address such conduct.

Business Law, Student Forum

Commercial and Contract Law Implications of the COVID-19 Pandemic

  • May 19, 2020
  • Wayne Gray, Practical Law Canada

Contracting parties are required to perform their agreed obligations. But what happens when an event takes place beyond the control of one of the contracting parties, such as the current COVID-19 pandemic, that renders a party unable to perform under the contract? This article provides an overview of contractual provisions and common law excuses that may excuse non-performance of a contract in such a situation.

Business Law, Student Forum

A Legal Counsel’s Observations on Work from Home Etiquette

  • April 27, 2020
  • KJ Chong, legal counsel, BroadGrain Commodities Inc.

A legal counsel shares her observations and suggestions about work from home etiquette, particularly as organizations ramp up work from home arrangements in the age of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Business Law, Canadian Corporate Counsel Association - Ontario Chapter, Student Forum

Up in the Air: Federal Government Approves First Air and Canadian North Merger Despite Report From the Competition Bureau

  • February 18, 2020
  • Subrata Bhattacharjee & Devin Persaud, Borden Ladner Gervais LLP

In July 2019, two northern Canadian airlines, First Air and Canadian North, announced that their respective owners had closed the merger of their two operations. The regulatory clearance of the deal under the review provisions of the Canada Transportation Act, despite a negative competitive effects report from the Commissioner of Competition, makes for an interesting case study into how the government weighs public interest issues against competition concerns in certain instances.

Business Law, Student Forum

Corporations Beware: Where Is Your Updated Land “Ownership” Register?

  • February 17, 2019
  • H.J. Blake, Q.C.

The Ontario Business Corporations Act requires corporations to maintain an updated register of the corporation’s ownership interest in land in Ontario at its registered office. This article discusses the information that must be identified in the register and possible penalties of non-compliance with this requirement.

Business Law, Student Forum

Bitcoin and Bankruptcy: Implications for Canadian Insolvency Law

  • December 17, 2018
  • Adam Driedger

Cryptocurrencies have gained considerable momentum in Canada and may ultimately mature into a mainstream asset class.3 Accordingly, policymakers ought to consider the implications of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies on the Canadian insolvency regime. There is no Canadian jurisprudence or guiding principles dealing directly with cryptocurrencies. However, this paper examines recent American case law, and highlights some of the key issues relevant to insolvency law in Canada.

Insolvency Law, Business Law, Student Forum