Publications

February 13, 2020

Bill 141: Checklist on insurance products offered via the internet and distribution without a representative

Download your checklist A major reform of the financial sector and, more specifically, of the standards surrounding the practice of professionals governed by the Autorité des marchés financiers (the “AMF”) is now applicable under the Act mainly to improve the regulation of the financial sector, (…)

February 6, 2020

Judicial Review: impact of the Vavilov Judgment

In Vavilov, the Supreme Court of Canada revised the applicable legal framework for the determination and application of the standard of judicial review of administrative decisions. Changes were made to the analytical framework for determining the applicable standard of review and clarification was (…)

January 20, 2020

Can an Expert Report be Inadmissible for Bias as a Preliminary Stage? The Superior Court of Quebec decides

The Code of Civil Procedure gives a party the ability to apply for the dismissal of an expert report as soon as it is disclosed by the adverse party. This process is governed by the courts. In the decision in Safran Nacelles v. Learjet inc.1, rendered in August 2019, the Superior Court granted an (…)

January 14, 2020

Are you protected against phishing email?
What the Court of Appeal said in insurance matters

Phishing fraud is a rampant problem that causes major losses throughout the world. It consists in bad actors sending emails in which they falsely claim to be a trusted third party or legitimate company in order to obtain confidential information from the recipient for the purpose of committing (…)

November 25, 2019

What lessons can we take from the fatal accident in Arizona in 2018 involving an autonomous vehicle?

On March 18, 2018, in Tempe, Arizona, a vehicle being operated by self-driving software which was under development, collided with a pedestrian, causing her death. Following this accident, the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board ("NTSB") conducted an investigation and, on November 19, 2019, (…)

November 22, 2019

Amendments to the Labour Standards Act : What is the rule for paid leave?

The latest amendments to the Labour Standards Act (“LSA”) provide that, in certain specific circumstances, the employers must pay the first two days of absence of their employees instead of granting them a leave without pay. In some instances, employees claimed two additional days of paid leave (…)

November 14, 2019

Labour shortage: answers to your questions about hiring a foreign worker

The labour shortage that affects Quebec as a whole as well as many other provinces has been a well-known issue for several years. Almost every week, we hear about companies that are forced to close their doors or limit their activities due to a lack of staff in positions of all nature. In order to (…)

November 8, 2019

Intellectual property in open innovation and co-innovation in the field of artificial intelligence

Moving far beyond the traditional models of closed innovation, artificial intelligence is progressing by means of collaborations and exchanges, both with the academic world and between companies. In Canada, the United States and Europe, innovation has evolved in ways that have changed the very (…)

November 7, 2019

5 keys to successfully sell your franchise system

Though it doesn’t happen often, some franchisors start a franchise system with the goal of selling it in the short or medium term. However, the quality of the infrastructure required to build a viable franchise system and the amount of resources (financial or other) that need to be invested over (…)

November 5, 2019

What can be done to discipline a manager? Potential solutions to keep in mind

Except in cases of “serious misconduct,” managing a manager whose performance is unsatisfactory or whose conduct is inappropriate can be delicate. Because of workplace usage and practices in Quebec, disciplinary management of managers differs from that applied to other employees of the company. (…)

October 31, 2019

Estoppel based on patent prosecution history in Canada: The Pandora’s box is opened

Nearly twenty years ago, the Supreme Court of Canada1 rejected the theory of estoppel based on a patent’s prosecution history, more commonly known as "file wrapper estoppel"2). At the time, Justice Binnie wrote, “[…]purposive construction, which keeps the focus on the language of the claims, seems (…)

October 29, 2019

Bill 37: What changes can be expected for Public Contracts?

On September 18, 2019, the Minister Responsible for Government Administration and Chair of the Conseil du trésor introduced Bill 37, An Act mainly to establish the Centre d’acquisitions gouvernementales et Infrastructures technologiques Québec1 As its name suggests, this bill is intended to (…)

October 25, 2019

Changes to the Canadian Patent Rules came into force on October 30^th 2019

The new Patent Rules, as well as certain amendments to the Patent Act, came into force on October 30, 2019. These changes implement the Patent Law Treaty and reduce the risk to applicants of a loss of rights but also bring about practice changes worthy of mention. Canadian national phase of a PCT (…)