Mireille Dahab

The appellant, a telecommunications company, filed GST returns claiming substantial tax refunds under the Excise Tax Act.

Following an audit, the Minister issued assessments disallowing input tax credits and imposing gross negligence penalties.

Rather than appealing to the Tax Court of Canada, the appellant brought an application for judicial review in Federal Court seeking declarations that the assessments breached procedural fairness, lacked an evidentiary foundation, and were issued for an improper purpose.

The Supreme Court of Canada unanimously dismissed the appeal, holding that the application was bereft of any possibility of success: the first two claims were properly within the Tax Court's exclusive jurisdiction as attacks on the correctness of assessments, the improper purpose claim was unsupported by any pleaded facts, and all three declarations sought would have had no practical effect given the absence of a live controversy apart from the correctness of the assessments.

The Court of Appeal for Ontario heard an appeal from a jury verdict and costs endorsement in a personal injury action.

The appellants (defendants) challenged the admissibility of a SPECT scan, the exclusion of attendant care forms for credibility, and jury instructions on causation and damages.

They also appealed the trial judge's refusal to deduct non-earner benefits from the tort award and the costs award.

The Court dismissed the appeals regarding the SPECT scan, attendant care forms, and jury instructions.

However, it allowed the appeal in part, ruling that non-earner benefits are deductible from the past income loss award, clarifying the "silo" approach under the Insurance Act.

The appeal on costs was dismissed, and the respondent was awarded costs for the appeal.

The plaintiffs, Iris Technologies Inc. and ICE Wireless Inc., commenced an action against TELUS Communications Company for breach of contract and unlawful interference with economic relations.

TELUS brought a motion to temporarily stay the action, arguing that the court lacked jurisdiction or was not the appropriate forum, as the core dispute fell within the exclusive jurisdiction of the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC).

The court granted a temporary stay, finding that the factual and legal underpinnings of the civil action and the CRTC proceedings were the same, and the predicate misconduct concerned matters within the CRTC's specialized expertise.