P.S.A. Lamek

The appellant company, through the Ontario Securities Commission, commenced an action against its directors and officers for alleged insider trading under the Ontario Securities Act.

The defendants argued that the provincial insider trading provisions were inoperative due to the doctrine of paramountcy, as they duplicated provisions in the federal Canada Corporations Act.

The Supreme Court of Canada held that both the federal and provincial provisions were intra vires under the double aspect doctrine.

The Court further held that the provincial provisions were not rendered inoperative by paramountcy, as mere duplication without actual conflict or contradiction does not invoke the doctrine.

The respondent, a plastic surgeon, incorporated a private hospital and entered into an employment contract with it, assigning his surgical fees to the hospital in exchange for a salary.

The Minister of National Revenue assessed the assigned fees as the respondent's personal income, arguing the hospital was illegally practising medicine.

The Supreme Court of Canada dismissed the Crown's appeal, holding that the respondent, not the hospital, was practising medicine, and the assignment of fees to the hospital under a valid employment contract did not make the fees assessable to the respondent.