William MacLarkey

The plaintiff staked unpatented mining claims on Crown land where the Ministry of Transportation (MTO) planned to build a realigned highway.

The plaintiff subsequently applied for aggregate permits, which were delayed and limited due to the highway construction.

The plaintiff brought an action claiming the MTO expropriated the property and sought compensation for the lost aggregate value.

The Superior Court of Justice dismissed the action, finding that an unpatented mining claim is not 'land' under the Expropriations Act.

The court further held that even if it were land, the claims had no value because the plaintiff could not have obtained an aggregate permit for the entire property, and the property was not wrongfully downzoned.

The moving parties sought a stay of an arbitration proceeding pending appeals from arbitration panel decisions concerning jurisdiction and party participation.

The dispute arose from an agreement granting the respondent First Nations partnership a right to have a nominee appointed to the board of the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation.

The moving parties argued the arbitration panel lacked jurisdiction due to the Crown prerogative over appointments and that the exclusion of the corporation from the arbitration violated natural justice.

Applying the tripartite test for a stay from RJR‑MacDonald, the court found serious issues on appeal regarding jurisdiction, irreparable harm to the public interest if arbitration proceeded prematurely, and that the balance of convenience favoured the moving parties.

The court therefore stayed the arbitration pending determination of the appeals.

The appellants appealed from the Court of Appeal's reversal of the CCAA court's decision regarding the priority of pension plan wind-up deficiency claims over court-ordered DIP financing charges.

The majority held that wind-up deficiencies under s. 75(1)(b) of the Pension Benefits Act were subject to a statutory deemed trust under s. 57(4), but that the deemed trust was superseded by the DIP charge by virtue of the doctrine of federal paramountcy.

The majority further held that while the employer-administrator breached its fiduciary duty by failing to ensure the pension plan beneficiaries had adequate notice and representation in the CCAA proceedings, a constructive trust was not an appropriate remedy because the breach did not result in an identifiable asset that it would be unjust for the wrongdoer to retain.

The moving party sought certification of a class action alleging systemic physical, emotional, and sexual abuse of visually impaired students at a provincially operated residential school.

The claim alleged negligence and breach of fiduciary duty arising from the province’s operation and supervision of the institution over several decades.

The court held that the pleadings disclosed viable causes of action in negligence and breach of fiduciary duty, including claims predating 1963.

It found an identifiable class, common issues relating to systemic misconduct, and that a class proceeding was the preferable procedure for resolving the claims.

The proposed representative plaintiff and litigation plan were found adequate, and the action was certified as a class proceeding.

In CCAA proceedings involving a large telecommunications company, the applicants sought authorization to cease environmental remediation work at several contaminated sites and to have regulatory remediation orders treated as claims within the insolvency process.

The provincial environmental regulator argued that its orders imposed regulatory performance obligations rather than monetary claims and therefore should not be stayed by the insolvency proceedings.

The court held that where a debtor is no longer operating and compliance with regulatory orders necessarily requires the expenditure of funds, such orders are in substance financial obligations.

The court concluded that environmental remediation orders relating to pre‑filing contamination constituted claims subject to the CCAA claims process and were stayed by the existing stay of proceedings.

The applicants were authorized to cease remediation activities and environmental claims were directed to be resolved through the established claims procedure.

The defendants sought leave to appeal an interlocutory order requiring production of numerous documents relating to police conduct during a blockade and the Crown’s duty to consult with Indigenous peoples before granting mining rights.

The moving parties argued the motion judge failed to give adequate reasons, misapplied relevance and proportionality principles under the Rules of Civil Procedure, and improperly assumed possession of certain documents.

The court held that the motion judge provided sufficient reasons and properly applied the relevance and proportionality requirements for documentary production.

The requested materials, including police notes and records related to consultation obligations, were highly relevant to claims involving access to property and alleged Crown negligence.

The defendants failed to establish good reason to doubt the correctness of the order, and leave to appeal was refused.