The applicants sought an injunction to prevent the respondents from trespassing on their portion of Silver Lake by navigation.
A preliminary issue arose regarding whether the application should be decided using the new, broader definition of "navigable water" from the Canadian Navigable Waters Act (CNWA) enacted in 2019, or the common law definition.
The court ruled that the new definition in s. 2 of the CNWA must be used, as Parliament's intention was to protect navigation rights on more bodies of water.
This interpretation was deemed to produce a just and reasonable result, effectively replacing the common law "aqueous highway" test.
