Tax
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November 15, 2024
AI in the courtroom: Canadian Judicial Council’s new guidelines
With the rapid advancement of artificial intelligence (AI) technology, Canadian courts are under increasing pressure to address its impact. While some view AI as a possible threat to the rule of law and democracy within Canada’s justice system, AI also holds promise for enhancing court operations, reducing workloads, supporting judicial functions and improving access to justice.
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November 14, 2024
Removal of untranslated English decisions on website won’t end novel lawsuit against SCC: plaintiff
The Supreme Court of Canada’s removal of thousands of pre-1970 (mostly unilingual-English) judgments from its website won’t end an unprecedented Federal Court lawsuit that aims to compel the top court’s registry to fix alleged violations of the Official Languages Act by translating the court’s unilingual decisions into the other official language, says the plaintiff language rights group Droits collectifs Québec.
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November 11, 2024
Estate freezes and resulting litigation issues
In my recent article “Estate freezes: An icebreaker,” I discussed how an estate freeze can be used to “lock in” the value of a family business’ shares at a given point in time and pass on the growth of that business to the business owner’s children. I briefly touched on some of the potential pitfalls that can complicate the execution and maintenance of an estate freeze. One of these complications — and the source of much of the litigation surrounding estate freezes — is the availability of the oppression remedy to the company’s shareholders.
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November 08, 2024
SCC elaborates on framework, scope for judicial review of regs and other subordinate legislation
The Supreme Court of Canada has ruled 9-0 that the Vavilov “reasonableness” standard for judicial review — informed by some of the Katz Group principles — presumptively applies when courts review whether subordinate legislation is authorized by law.
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November 08, 2024
JUDICIAL REVIEW AND STATUTORY APPEAL - Standard of review - Reasonableness
Appeal by appellants from a judgment of the Alberta Court of Appeal which affirmed a decision dismissing their application for judicial review. The appellants were owners of coal-fired electrical power generation facilities. They entered into off-coal agreements with the respondent, the Province of Alberta (Province), to eventually cease coal-fired emissions by 2030 in exchange for substantial sums paid annually by the Province to compensate for the loss of value arising from the reduced life of the appellants' facilities. .
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November 08, 2024
Are long-term disability payments taxable?
There can be a tax liability with long-term disability payments, and if an individual is forced to rely on long-term disability (LTD) insurance as an income replacement after an injury or disability, they may wonder if those payments are taxable. The answer depends on several factors.
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November 05, 2024
New counsel joins Gowling WLG
A recent news release from Gowling WLG announced the addition of John Campbell as counsel in the firm’s Toronto tax group.
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November 05, 2024
Draft amendments to Canada’s new trust reporting rules proposed
Only one year after implementing new reporting rules for trusts under the Income Tax Act, the federal government is already proposing a number of amendments to the reporting regime.
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November 04, 2024
Fed. Ct. judges take to YouTube to address bar’s & litigants’ non-disclosure of gen-AI court filings
Knowing that at least some (if not how many) lawyers and self-represented litigants are failing to disclose their use of ChatGPT or other generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools when they create content for documents filed in Federal Court, the national trial court has taken the novel step of posting YouTube videos, titled “Compliance with the Notice on the Use of Artificial Intelligence,” featuring judges who explain how to comply with the mandatory AI-use disclosure obligations the court imposed 10 months ago.
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November 04, 2024
Tax court judicial appointment announced
Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada Arif Virani has announced the appointment of Perry M.D. Derksen as a judge of the Tax Court of Canada, according to a Nov. 1 news release.