Business Law and Corporate Law

A Lifetime Benefit Trust is one of the most powerful and underutilized estate planning tools available to Canadian families where a financially dependent beneficiary suffers from a mental infirmity.

For years, First Nations have been negotiating and settling specific claims relating to past wrongs committed against them, including those relating to the Crown’s failure to provide reserve lands or other assets under Treaty, as well as mismanagement of those lands or assets.

Family-owned businesses often start governing themselves informally, with an understanding between siblings or cousins that works fine until the family, or the business, outgrows it. Two publications help explain what effective family enterprise governance looks like, and why it's worth the effort of building it deliberately rather than leaving it to chance.

What are the critical timing requirements franchisors must follow when delivering disclosure documents to prospective franchisees? Jennifer Shayko explores the specific deadlines mandated by Ontario's Arthur Wishart Act and explains the strategic considerations franchisors should keep in mind to ensure compliance and protect their interests.

À compter du 13 août 2026, certaines entreprises exerçant des activités industrielles jugées à risque élevé s'exposent à des amendes minimales dix fois plus élevées en cas d'infraction à la Loi sur la qualité de l'environnement (LQE). Cette réforme s'inscrit dans une tendance plus large visant à renforcer l'effet dissuasif des sanctions environnementales et inciter les entreprises à s’assurer de leur conformité aux exigences législatives et réglementaires applicables.

Health Canada has published comprehensive amendments to drug and medical device shortage regulations, introducing expanded reporting requirements, extended expiration date authorities, and enhanced exceptional importation frameworks. The new measures grant the Minister of Health broader powers to prevent and respond to supply disruptions while requiring manufacturers to provide 12-month advance notice of discontinuations.

Section 160 of the Income Tax Act is one of the Canada Revenue Agency’s most powerful collection tools. It can make the recipient of a property transfer jointly and severally liable for the transferor’s unpaid tax debt where the property moved for less than fair market value to a non-arm’s-length person.

For too long, Canadian tax law penalized business owners who wanted to keep their life’s work in the family. A sale to a stranger entitled the vendor to the lifetime capital gains exemption (LCGE) — currently $1,302,938 for 2026, indexed annually — sheltering over a million dollars of gain from tax.

Family-owned businesses often start governing themselves informally, with an understanding between siblings or cousins that works fine until the family, or the business, outgrows it. Two publications help explain what effective family enterprise governance looks like, and why it's worth the effort of building it deliberately rather than leaving it to chance.

This article is Part 3 of a four-part series on Canadian sanctions compliance. Part 1 — Overview covered the core legislative framework. Part 2 — Real Estate examined sanctions risk in real estate transactions. Part 3 focuses on the cross-border compliance conflict that arises when Canadian and U.S. Cuba sanctions obligations collide. Part 4 (July 21) will address Canada’s export control rules and recent amendments to the Export Control List.

Sometimes deals are too good to be true. In Curridor v. Millstone Homes Inc., 2026 ONCA 571, a buyer claimed that he was entitled to buy a newly built property in Komoka, Ontario from a builder for the cost of construction under a special “friends and family deal.”

Since the release of OpenAI’s ChatGPT in late 2022, Artificial Intelligence (AI) has quickly evolved from experimental pilot programs to a core operational input for many publicly traded companies.[