Sébastien Grammond

Two traffic-offence appellants argued Alberta had a constitutional obligation to enact, print, and publish legislation in both French and English based on the 1867 Address and 1870 constitutional instruments.

A majority held no entrenched constitutional guarantee of legislative bilingualism applied to Alberta through those texts, rejected related fiduciary-duty arguments, and dismissed both appeals.

The Court answered the constitutional questions in Alberta's favour while awarding the appellants party-and-party costs in this Court and below.

The appellant filed a civil liability action for sexual assault more than 25 years after the alleged assault occurred.

The respondents successfully moved to dismiss the action on the ground that it was prescribed, and the Quebec Court of Appeal affirmed the dismissal.

The Supreme Court of Canada allowed the appeal, agreeing with the dissenting judge at the Court of Appeal that the issue of when prescription started to run raised questions of fact that could not be resolved on the face of the record.

The case was remanded to the Quebec Superior Court to assess the evidence.

The appellants and respondent formed a partnership to create children's books featuring the character Caillou.

A dispute arose over the interpretation of a licence contract, and the matter was referred to arbitration.

The arbitrator ruled that the parties were co-authors and that the appellants held the reproduction rights.

The Superior Court dismissed a motion to annul the award, but the Court of Appeal reversed, holding that copyright ownership was a matter of public order and could not be arbitrated under the Copyright Act.

The Supreme Court of Canada allowed the appeal, restoring the arbitration award.

The Court held that section 37 of the Copyright Act does not preclude arbitration, and that copyright ownership is not a matter of public order that falls outside arbitral jurisdiction.