AS PREVIOUSLY PUBLISHED IN THE RURAL VOICE: The Supreme Court of Canada issued a decision at the end of May, 2024 in a case about topsoil.  Of course, the case was not only about topsoil.  Topsoil just happened to be the subject matter of the contract at the heart of the dispute between the parties.  The Supreme Court chose to hear the case because it involved important questions about contracts for the sale of goods and the statutory conditions that are implied through legislation to form part of those contracts. With the exception of Quebec, all Canadian provinces and territo ..read more

AS PREVIOUSLY PUBLISHED IN THE RURAL VOICE: This month’s article doesn’t have much to do with farming, but I couldn’t pass on the opportunity to share a farming-related analogy at the centre of a recent impaired driving case.  A “mythical inoperable tractor” served as the basis for the initially (but not ultimately) successful defence of the charge.  The facts of the case are simple.  A driver was involved in a single motor vehicle accident in the early morning hours one day in December, 2019 in the City of Toronto.  The sound of the accident had been overheard by a witnes ..read more

AS PREVIOUSLY PUBLISHED IN THE RURAL VOICE: A recent decision of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice tells a sad tale of sisters fighting over the family farm.  The 100-acre farm with a two-storey farmhouse and bank barn had been in their mother’s family since the 1920s.  By the time the father died in the late-2000s, the mother was living in a long-term care home, incapable of managing her property.  Her four daughters held power of attorney for property, but could not agree on how to manage the property including the farm.  For five long years, the sisters engaged in ..read more

AS PREVIOUSLY PUBLISHED IN THE RURAL VOICE: Conservation Authorities in Ontario are authorized by the Conservation Authorities Act (the “Act”) to make regulations “prohibiting, regulating or requiring the permission of the authority for straightening, changing, diverting or interfering in any way with the existing channel of a river, creek, stream or watercourse, or for changing or interfering in any way with a wetland”.  Authorities can also make regulations “prohibiting, regulating or requiring the permission of the authority for development if, in the opinion of the authority, the con ..read more

AS PREVIOUSLY PUBLISHED IN THE RURAL VOICE: I probably shouldn’t have been surprised, but I was surprised upon learning recently of a municipal by-law requiring landowners to keep grass and weeds down below a maximum height on the municipal boulevard abutting private properties.  The by-law was passed by an urban municipality – a city in the GTA area – and applies to all “private land” regardless of its use.  While it is easy to picture the small strip of grass located between the edge of the street or sidewalk and a residential front yard and to understand why a municipality might ..read more

AS PREVIOUSLY PUBLISHED IN THE RURAL VOICE: According to Ontario’s Weed Control Act, “every person in possession of land shall destroy all noxious weeds on it.”  The owner of land is deemed by the Act to be in possession of the land.  Provincial and municipal road authorities are deemed to be in possession of road allowances.  Noxious weeds are those that are prescribed in the Regulation made under the Act (including giant hogweed, poison-ivy, leafy spurge, sow-thistle, ragweed, etc.) and other plants that may be deemed to be a noxious weed (called a “local weed”) in a by-law p ..read more

AS PREVIOUSLY PUBLISHED IN THE RURAL VOICE: Courts and tribunals in Canada are to be held to the highest standards of impartiality.  This is not just a matter of decision makers subjectively acting fairly and impartially (i.e. actually being fair and impartial) but just as importantly a matter of fairness and impartiality being demonstrated to the public.  As articulated by the English Chief Justice Lord Hewitt: “[it] is of fundamental importance that justice should not only be done, but should manifestly and undoubtedly be seen to be done.”  A hearing will be unfair, and justi ..read more

AS PREVIOUSLY PUBLISHED IN THE RURAL VOICE: According to the Assessment Act (the “Act”), the legislation that governs property taxation in Ontario, the Assessment Review Board (the “ARB”) has authority to determine whether lands are “farm lands used only for farm purposes by the owner” for purposes of valuing property.  Section 19(5) of the Act provides that in valuing “farm lands used only for farm purposes by the owner”, consideration must be given to the current value of lands and buildings for farm purposes only (i.e. not their value for any other purpose) and consideration must not ..read more

AS PREVIOUSLY PUBLISHED IN THE RURAL VOICE: At one time, oil and gas pipelines in Canada were installed with as little as two feet of depth of cover – maybe less.  Although the minimum depth of cover required over new pipelines as set out in the applicable CSA Standard Z662 remains two feet, companies today routinely install pipelines with four feet depth of cover or more.  However, a major deficiency in the depth of cover standard has been the absence of a requirement to maintain depth of cover over pipelines to any specified minimum.  A pipeline may be sufficiently deep at in ..read more

AS PREVIOUSLY PUBLISHED IN THE RURAL VOICE:   Until recently, there was a thin strip of laneway running behind a building not far from Downtown Toronto that still belonged – at least on paper – to the man who bought it 1824.  Although that owner died in 1870, he was still considered by the Land Registry in Ontario to be the registered owner of the strip, which is wide enough only for a car (or horse and cart) to pass along.  On an application made to the Superior Court, the present-day corporate owner of the adjacent property has now been declared the owner of the strip of ..read more