Counterfactual

In this episode of Counterfactual, Kirsten Cirella sits down with Kate McNeece, counsel at Goodmans LLP and co-chair of the 2026 CBA Competition Law Fall Conference, held in Ottawa on October 15 and 16. They revisit key discussions from the conference, including the debate over whether competition policy should help Canadian businesses reach global scale or protect rivalry at home, and proposals such as sector-specific competition rules and a ministerial public interest override of merger review. They also explore developments under the Investment Canada Act, including the expansion of national security review into economic security, the forthcoming mandatory pre-closing filing regime and the future of net benefit review, and share highlights from the infrastructure and cartel enforcement guidelines panels. The conversation wraps up with a look at the issues and debates to watch in the year ahead.

In this episode of the Counterfactual Podcast, Valeska Rebello sits down with Nadia Vassos, Director in the Retail and Supermarkets Branch at the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission and a co-author of the OECD's Gender Inclusive Competition Toolkit, to discuss what gender inclusive competition policy means and what it looks like in practice. They discuss how the toolkit came about through a partnership between the Canadian government and the OECD, walk through practical ways competition authorities can apply a gender lens to their work, and respond to the critique that gender considerations dilute enforcement.

In this Episode, new Section Chair, Shuli Rodal, provides a brief overview of the Section and its committees; reflects on her journey in the Section over two decades; explains the nature and importance of the Section’s interactions with key stakeholders and counterparts, including the Competition Bureau, the Foreign Investment Review and Economic Security Branch, the CBA, the ABA and other bar associations; reflects upon recent developments in the practice area; and offers her thoughts on what promises to be an exciting year ahead.  As an added bonus, Podcast Committee Chair, Julia Potter and Annual Fall Conference Chair, Kate McNeece preview what promises to be an exciting Annual Fall Conference on October 14-16.

In this episode of Counterfactual, Kirsten Cirella speaks with Dan Rosenthal, a partner in the Washington, D.C. office of Kirkland & Ellis, about the evolving U.S. merger enforcement environment. They trace the expanded 2025 HSR rules, their subsequent vacatur and the ongoing litigation, and the FTC and DOJ request for information reconsidering what should be required at the filing stage. The discussion also explores how potential changes involving longstanding HSR exemptions, sovereign wealth funds, and foreign-government affiliations could affect cross-border deal planning. Finally, Dan explains the growing role of state attorneys general, including recent divergence from federal enforcers and the emergence of state “mini-HSR” notification regimes.

This episode was recorded on May 27, 2026, and the discussion reflects the U.S. merger enforcement landscape as of that date.

Host Julia Potter speaks with conference co-chairs Josh Chad and Laura O’Laughlin about highlights from the recent CBA Competition Law Section Spring Conference in Montreal. They discuss key themes across panels, including the growing intersection between competition law and national economic strategy, evolving merger review practices, and the anticipated expansion of private access to the Competition Tribunal. The conversation also explores the role of political will in major projects, practical insights from the keynote on foreign investment review, and competition across the AI stack. 

In this episode of the Counterfactual Podcast, we hear from Beth Riley of McMillan LLP and Sultana Bennett of RBC for the second installment of our competition law compliance series.  In this episode, we focus on risks: how to identify and assess the quantum of risk and how to mitigate risk while achieving business objectives.  Our guests also review some hypothetical risk situations to provide additional practical advice.

The first installment of the Competition Law Compliance Series can be found at: https://counterfactual.simplecast.com/episodes/compliance-compass-guiding-your-business-through-canadas-competition-laws.

In this episode of the Counterfactual Podcast, Valeska Rebello and Kevin Hong sit down with Professor Anthony Rosborough, Assistant Professor of Law and Computer Science at Dalhousie University, to discuss the “Right to Repair”. They discuss the recent amendments to the Competition Act, compare Canada’s approach to other jurisdictions, address practical enforcement challenges, and examine the broader social and economic impacts on repair restrictions. This episode is a collaboration with the Young Lawyer's Committee of the CBA's Competition Law and Foreign Investment Review section.

In this episode, host Julia Potter continues the Better Know the Bureau series with an in‑depth conversation with Jonathan Hood, Senior Counsel at the Department of Justice for Competition Bureau Legal Services (CBLS). Jonathan shares his winding path from private practice to competition enforcement, to leading major litigation files in Canadian competition law.

In June 2024, the Competition Act was amended to require businesses to have testing or substantiation to support certain environmental claims, and in June 2025, the Competition Tribunal became empowered to grant leave to private parties to bring deceptive marketing cases, including in relation to environmental claims, if the Tribunal is satisfied that it would be in the “public interest.”  In November 2025 the Government proposed further amendments to the environmental claims provisions of the Competition Act that would walk back some of the earlier amendments not long after they took effect.  Julien Beaulieu, who was our guest in previous episodes about environmental claims that aired in April 2023 and September 2024, returns to share his insights on this important development.

In this episode of the Counterfactual Podcast, we travel to Ottawa for our annual live episode! In this political special, we are joined by Patrick Weiler, Liberal MP for West Vancouver – Sunshine Coast – Sea to Sky Country.  With MP Weiler, we discuss the Federal budget, the differences between legal advocacy and law making, and learn the behind the scenes scoop on the greenwashing amendments in Bill C-59.