Roger Leclaire

The Ottawa Senators Hockey Club Corporation entered CCAA protection.

The Crown claimed priority over secured creditors for unremitted payroll deductions, GST, and associated penalties and interest.

The motion judge held the Crown did not have priority for penalties/interest on payroll deductions or for unremitted GST.

On appeal, the Court of Appeal upheld the decision regarding payroll deduction penalties and interest, finding the Crown ranks as an unsecured creditor.

However, the Court allowed the appeal regarding unremitted GST, holding that the deemed trust provision in section 222(3) of the Excise Tax Act prevails over section 18.3(1) of the CCAA based on the rule of effectivity for 'notwithstanding' clauses.

Appeal from the denial of charitable registration to an organization serving immigrant and visible minority women through employment-related workshops, counselling, and referral supports.

The majority held that the organization’s primary educational purpose could fit within an expanded understanding of the advancement of education, but the organization still failed because its purposes and activities were not exclusively charitable and were too vague and broad to confine it to charitable activities alone.

The Court declined to undertake wholesale reform of the common law definition of charity, leaving any major expansion to Parliament.

The equality challenge under s. 15 of the Charter was also rejected.

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) was charged under the Criminal Code with broadcasting an obscene film.

The CBC argued that as a Crown corporation, it enjoyed Crown immunity from criminal prosecution.

The Supreme Court of Canada held that while the CBC acts as an agent of the Crown when lawfully executing its powers under the Broadcasting Act, it steps outside its agency role when it exercises its powers in a manner inconsistent with the Act.

Because broadcasting an obscene film is prohibited by regulations under the Broadcasting Act and the Criminal Code, the CBC was not acting as a Crown agent and is subject to criminal prosecution.