In a decision expected by tax pundits to set a precedent, the Quebec taxman partially lost a legal battle after the Court of Appeal held that coverage provided by a universal life insurance policy does not constitute income from property even though it is a benefit for the insured taxpayer.
Insurers must clearly indicate exclusions or clauses, particularly clauses dealing with suicide, that reduce coverage under an appropriate heading or risk having the exclusion clause declared null and void, ruled the Quebec Court of Appeal.
Two separate but related class actions were recently certified by Quebec Superior Court against tech behemoths Google and Meta for allegedly breaching Quebecers’ freedom of expression by censoring or making content directly or indirectly related to COVID-19 unaccessible.
A Montreal soccer club did not discriminate by refusing to integrate two girls into a boys’ team, ruled the Quebec Court of Appeal.
The Quebec Court of Appeal, handcuffed by the provincial government’s use of the notwithstanding clause, upheld a controversial secularism law that bans religious symbols from being worn by government employees, in a decision lauded by legal observers who endorse the so-called “parliamentary sovereignty clause” while bemoaned by others who deem it to be a “major retreat” from the fundamental principle of the rule of law.
A Quebec Human Rights Tribunal that found that a prisoner had been discriminated against during a strip search because he had been viewed by a correctional services officer of the opposite sex was overturned by the Quebec Court of Appealed a Human Rights Tribunal decision.
A legislative provision in the Act respecting the Quebec Pension Plan that financially penalizes disability claimants at age 65 was declared unconstitutional because it infringed the right to equality under the Canadian Charter.
A new trend in case law dealing with work-related psychological trauma has emerged over the past year that both clarifies the test dealing with workplace mental injury and will likely lighten the burden for employees to make their case, according to legal pundits.
The Quebec Human Rights Tribunal ordered the Attorney General of Quebec and eight prison employees to pay a young black man $41,500 in moral and punitive damages in a decision deemed to be a major step forward in the recognition of racial profiling and the duty to accommodate in prisons.
The Quebec Court of Appeal, concerned about opening the “floodgates” for claims against landlords, held that a commercial tenant could not invoke the notion of legal disturbance to stop paying their rent during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Quebec’s provincial police officers, dissatisfied with the progress of labour negotiations, will begin donning colourful cargo pants, a tactic that was given the green light by a ruling that recognizes the right to modify uniforms as an “associational activity” that could be protected by the Canadian Charter.