Articles

On June 12, 2018 Quebec’s Labour Standards Act was updated by the coming into force of an initial phase of the provisions of Bill 176, entitled An act to amend the act respecting labour standards and other legislative provisions mainly to facilitate family-work balance. The second phase of this update was implemented on January 1, 2019 with the coming into force of some important provisions, particularly regarding the right to refuse to work, annual vacations, leave for family or health reasons, and psychological harassment.

For several years now, in both commercial and personal financings, financial institutions and private lenders have added a clause to their loan agreements providing for an additional hypothec over and above the principal hypothec provided for in the agreement. This is now a well-established practice in Quebec.

The Canadian Intellectual Property Office’s Goods and Services Manual has recently been updated with the addition of several terms related to marijuana and cannabis in many categories.

The Government of Quebec has recently enacted the Regulation respecting training on the retail sale of cannabis and information to be communicated to a purchaser in the course of a cannabis sale.

During the brief parliamentary session that ended on December 7, the Minister for Health and Social Services, Mr. Lionel Carmant, tabled a bill before the National Assembly entitled An Act to tighten the regulation of cannabis.

The legislation on recreational cannabis, which has been in force since October 17, 2018, has left no one indifferent, especially owners of apartment buildings. The Cannabis Regulation Act (the “Act”) deals with such aspects as possession, cultivation, use, sale and promotion of cannabis. The Act prohibits smoking cannabis in several locations, particularly in the common areas of residential buildings comprising two or more dwellings, but not in the dwellings themselves. This state of affairs is not to the liking of many residential building owners, who would like to prohibit this practice. In order to do so however, they must comply with certain rules governing the modification of a residential lease.