I once lost a seat in business class to an alleged Emotional Support Animal (“ESA”). The dog’s owners arrived for a flight in which they were apparently ready to put their alleged ESA, Woofie Goldberg[i], into her carrier and stow her under the seat in front of their own seats….
In Mansour v. Girgis, the court was asked to interpret the Deceased’s will and if the will was found to be ambiguous, to rectify a drafting error. The Deceased died in 2012. He never married and never had children. At the time of his death, he was survived by two…
Corporately-owned life insurance is viewed as a key strategic option in tax and estate planning, notably for business owners. There are several strategic reasons to consider corporately-owned insurance as part of the estate plan, such as equalization among the beneficiaries of their estate or to fund the taxes triggered on…
As planners working with elderly clients and their families, we encourage people to plan their lives until the end of life and document their wishes for the care of their body after death. People often express their wish to return to a rural community for burial. However, since the COVID…
Today’s Blog was written by Courtney Lanthier, Law Clerk at Fasken LLP Can it? Probably. Should it? Probably not. While the use of Artificial Intelligence (“AI”) seems to be a rising trend these days, it’s important to note that even though it has certain capabilities, that doesn’t mean it should…
Technology sometimes produces unanticipated consequences. Witness Canada Revenue Agency. To its credit, CRA has implemented secure, mostly user-friendly technology over the past 20 years. For charities this includes online accounts and user-friendly “checklist” tools for charities. Unfortunately, these features sometimes create a special set of challenges for registered charities and…
In Ventura v Ventura, 2022 ONSC 6351 (“Ventura”), the Court dealt with a number of issues relating to the duties and obligations of attorneys for property. In Ventura, “A”, “L”, and “E” were appointed as joint attorneys for property and personal care of their mother, “M”. In 2012, M was…
Today’s blog was written by Douglas Buchmayer, partner with the Ottawa office of Gowling WLG (Canada) LLP A common issue facing estate planning practitioners in Eastern Ontario is the Ontario resident client owning Quebec assets, often the family cottage, which need to be dealt with in a Will. Where a…
We had a Zoom call with our adult children a few weekends ago. We talked about our son’s engagement, as our daughter hadn’t yet heard the details of how he had proposed. We also talked about our daughter’s recent 5K run at the Toronto Zoo and how it compared to…
I happened to be on my google machine earlier today, doing a quick search of “activation of powers of attorney”. I found a rather upsetting website belonging to a member of the bar suggesting that a power of attorney ought to be activated “if the grantor dies”, and so here…