Audrey Boctor

Appeal concerning the scope of corrective powers conferred on the Youth Division of the Court of Québec under s. 91 para. 4 of the Youth Protection Act, which empowers the tribunal to order the correction of a situation where a child's rights have been encroached upon during social intervention.

The Court held that the tribunal's mandate is to render individualized and particularized justice based solely on the interests and rights of the child whose situation has been referred to it, and that preventive corrective measures are valid only if: the child is at risk of the encroachment recurring; the measure can effectively help prevent recurrence; and the measure is related to protecting the interests and rights of that specific child.

The Court further confirmed that the tribunal also holds a non-binding power of recommendation anchored in the text, scheme, and object of the YPA.

Since the young person had reached the age of majority and was no longer subject to social intervention, no corrective order was made.

The appellants, who served as presidents of a group of insurance companies under an incentive pay agreement with the majority shareholders, learned that a major company was interested in acquiring the group.

Rather than disclosing this to the shareholders, the presidents purchased the shareholders' interests and resold them at a substantial profit.

The Supreme Court of Canada held that the presidents breached both an implied contractual obligation to inform arising from the nature of the Presidents' Agreement and the obligation to perform that agreement in accordance with the requirements of good faith under arts. 1434 and 1375 of the Civil Code of Québec.

Disgorgement of profits was held unavailable as a non-compensatory remedy absent an obligation of maximalist loyalty, but damages equivalent to the appellants' profits were awarded pursuant to a rebuttable presumption that the shareholders' lost gain equalled those profits, where the appellants' own disloyal conduct prevented precise proof of injury.

The appeal was dismissed with costs.

A lawyer referred his clients to a financial advisor who was his personal friend, and over a period of four years repeatedly endorsed and encouraged the clients to invest with the advisor's firm.

The investments turned out to be part of a Ponzi scheme and the clients lost over $5 million.

The trial judge dismissed the professional liability claim, finding no causal link between the lawyer's faults and the clients' losses.

The Quebec Court of Appeal reversed, finding the trial judge had assessed the evidence through a distorting lens leading to palpable and overriding errors.

The Supreme Court dismissed the appeal, holding that the Court of Appeal correctly identified palpable and overriding errors and that the lawyer's breaches of his duty to advise and duty of loyalty were a true cause of the clients' losses; the intervening fraud did not break the chain of causation.

Aroland First Nation and Ginoogaming First Nation sought partial summary judgment for a declaration that the Crown's duty to consult under s. 35 of the Constitution Act, 1982, is triggered by ongoing invasive testing (integrity digs and hydrostatic testing) on established natural gas pipelines traversing their traditional territories.

The defendants opposed, arguing no duty to consult or that the matter was unsuitable for partial summary judgment.

The court dismissed the motion, concluding that the issue could not be fairly and justly decided through partial summary judgment due to the need for a careful, incremental approach to Aboriginal law, disputed facts regarding adverse impact, significant overlap with broader issues of duty scope and breach, and the novelty of the case.