Alannah M. Fotheringham

Robert Barra and Shailesh Govindia were convicted of agreeing to bribe the Indian Minister of Civil Aviation under the Corruption of Foreign Public Officials Act.

Barra, CEO of Cryptometrics US, retained Govindia to facilitate a $500,000 bribe for a facial recognition software contract with Air India, with potential for an additional $1.5 million.

Govindia, however, misappropriated the bribe funds, leading to the scheme's failure and no contract award.

The Crown sought 4 years for Barra and 3 years for Govindia, while the defence proposed 2 years for both.

Considering mitigating factors such as no prior criminal records, the unsuccessful nature of the bribe, and economic hardship, alongside aggravating factors like financial motivation and the seriousness of the offence, the court imposed a sentence of 2.5 years imprisonment for each offender.

The appellants, survivors and family members of victims of the Rana Plaza building collapse in Bangladesh in 2013, brought a class action against Loblaws and Bureau Veritas seeking damages for negligence, vicarious liability, and breach of fiduciary duty.

The motion judge dismissed the action on the basis that Bangladeshi law applied (not Ontario law), the claims were statute-barred under Bangladesh's one-year limitation period, and the claims disclosed no reasonable cause of action.

The Court of Appeal upheld the dismissal on all grounds.

The court also addressed a costs appeal, reducing the costs award by 30% to reflect the public interest component of the claims.

The plaintiffs, ATS Automation Tooling Systems Inc. and IWK (Thailand) Ltd., brought a motion to temporarily stay their action against Chubb Insurance Company of Canada.

The action concerned insurance coverage for damaged medical packaging equipment shipped from Thailand to India.

The plaintiffs sought the stay pending the final resolution of related arbitral proceedings in India, arguing that the issues were intertwined and a stay would prevent prejudice and promote efficiency.

Chubb opposed the stay, asserting it had no standing in the Indian arbitration, that the plaintiffs had suffered no insurable loss under the policy (which only covered ocean carriage to Chennai, not inland transit), and that the action was a placeholder.

The court refused the stay, finding that the interpretation of the Chubb policy was irrelevant to the Indian arbitration, that there was no certainty of the arbitration proceeding, and that delaying Chubb's opportunity to seek summary judgment would cause prejudice.

The court emphasized the principles of proportionality, timeliness, and affordability in civil litigation, as articulated in Hryniak v. Mauldin.

The accused was charged with sexually assaulting a 13-year-old boy at the YMCA.

The defence sought production of third-party incident reports held by the YMCA documenting other alleged misconduct by the complainant with other men at the facility.

The court dismissed the application, finding that the defence failed to meet the "likely relevance" threshold under section 278.3 of the Criminal Code.

The court determined that the records were sought as part of a speculative fishing expedition to portray the complainant as the initiator of sexual activity, relying on impermissible stereotypes and myths about sexual assault victims.

The appellant sought a review of a chambers judge's decision dismissing his motion for an extension of time to file a notice of appeal, which he had missed by two weeks.

The chambers judge found that while the appellant had formed the requisite intention to appeal and provided an adequate explanation for the delay with no prejudice to the respondent, he failed to demonstrate that there was merit to the proposed appeal.

The Court of Appeal upheld the chambers judge's decision, finding that the conclusory statements in the appellant's affidavit did not support an error and that the core findings on the summary judgment motion regarding the expiration of the limitations period and the appellant's lack of standing were unassailable.

The Court of Appeal for Ontario considered whether a 1985 indemnity provided by the Province of Ontario to Great Lakes and Reed covered the costs of complying with a 2011 Director's Order requiring remedial work at an abandoned mercury waste disposal site near Dryden, Ontario.

The motion judge had granted summary judgment in favour of Weyerhaeuser and Resolute, finding both were entitled to indemnification.

The appellate court was divided.

The majority (Brown and Lauwers JJ.A.) held that the 1985 indemnity did cover the costs of complying with the Director's Order, but found that Resolute had no legal interest in the indemnity because Bowater had assigned the full benefit to Weyerhaeuser in 1998.

The majority remitted the issue of Weyerhaeuser's rights as assignee to the trial court.

Justice Laskin dissented, arguing the 1985 indemnity covered only third-party pollution claims, not first-party regulatory compliance costs.

The appellant appealed the dismissal of his motion to add additional defendants and seek damages of $76 million, punitive damages of $24 million, and an order striking down the Indian Act.

The motion was dismissed because it was brought without leave after the action had been set down for trial, in breach of Rule 48.04(1) of the Rules of Civil Procedure.

The appellant also objected to the composition of the appellate panel on grounds of reasonable apprehension of bias, which the court rejected.

The appeal was dismissed with costs awarded to the respondents.