Articles

While some see the development of artificial intelligence as a means of increasing access to justice by automating certain tasks, this new technology could have significant repercussions for the legal profession. In this context, the Superior Court recently rendered an important decision in Chambre des notaires du Québec c. Compagnie d’assurances FCT et al. on the legality of juridical acts automatically generated by title insurers.

The Provincial Court of New Brunswick’s decision in R. v. Comeau was rendered on April 29, 2016 by Judge Ronald LeBlanc in Campbellton, N.B. While it has not garnered a lot of media attention in Quebec, this decision, which is currently before the Supreme Court of Canada, could have a major impact on interprovincial trade, specifically in terms of liberalizing the market for alcoholic beverages, and generally on the powers of the provinces to legislate on imports from other Canadian provinces.

Inspectors of the Ministry of Sustainable Development, the Environment and the Fight against Climate Change (the “MSDEFCC”) have broad general powers of inspection. Section 119 of the Environment Quality Act (the “EQA”) provides that “[e]very functionary authorized for that purpose by the Minister may at any reasonable time enter land, a building, including a dwelling house, a vehicle or a boat, to examine books, registers and records, or the premises, for the purposes of this Act or the regulations.”

This article is a modified version of an article originally published on the website of Conseiller-Juridique.ca.

The organization of contests, draws and lotteries is subject to a number of legislative provisions which remain unknown to many. In this article, we explain the main factors to take into consideration if, in order to promote a product, business or other commercial interest, you are thinking of organizing and encouraging residents of Quebec to take part in a draw or other contest, all of which are generally referred to under Quebec law as “publicity contests”.

Jean-Benoît Pouliot, a lawyer at Langlois, recently raised this question before the Administrative Tribunal of Québec (the “ATQ”). In the matter in question1, the ATQ had to decide on the validity of a notice of claim for the direct and indirect costs associated with the issuance of an order to restore premises to their former state2. The notice of claim had been signed by the assistant general director of financial and material resources at the Ministry of Sustainable Development, the Environment and the Fight against Climate Change.

On May 30th, Quebec’s National Assembly adopted Bill 142, putting an end to a construction workers’ strike that had been ongoing for seven days and decreeing a wage increase of 1.8% for the workers concerned.