Where does liability fall when the Crown is found to have acted dishonourably toward a First Nation? In a recent decision, the Ontario Court of Appeal found that a representative of the Imperial Crown – the federal government’s predecessor – altered the boundaries of a reserve negotiated in an 1854 treaty, in a case that has significant modern-day ramifications for both the Chippewas of Saugeen First Nation and residents of Sauble Beach (originally recorded on February 26, 2025).

In York Region School District v. Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario, the Supreme Court ruled that, in accordance with Charter rights, school board employees have a reasonable expectation of privacy regarding content on board-issued electronic devices (originally recorded on September 18, 2024).

Sellers of goods often attempt to exclude liability for implied warranties and conditions. The Supreme Court of Canada ruled in Earthco Soil Mixtures Inc. v. Pine Valley Enterprises Inc. that such exclusions are legally enforceable (originally recorded on September 18, 2024).

In Canada (Attorney General) v. Power, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that Charter claimants can potentially claim damages against the Crown for enacting unconstitutional legislation—but the threshold for seeking such damages remains high (originally recorded on September 18, 2024).

AI use is accelerating within the legal industry, offering efficiencies that enable firms to scale up their service while streamlining costs. In this podcast, Torys partner and tax lawyer Scott Semer speaks with Michaël Hassan, Managing Director, General Counsel & Secretary of Sagard Holdings LP about the opportunities presented by generative AI, and how those changes will impact casework, clients, and lawyers alike.

AI’s ability to automate is transforming traditional workflows and transactions, but in this fast-paced era, it can be difficult to predict the full extent of AI’s influence on complex tasks such as due diligence and dealmaking. In this podcast, our New York tax partner Scott Semer is joined by Nick Kato, founder of Leo Berwick and co-founder of Elbe, to explore the impact of AI on professional services, and what the future holds for the role of dealmakers, lawyers and others in the professional services sector.

Torys Business Brief is a long-form podcast that focusses on key issues and actionable knowledge for businesses to emerge from the COVID-19 crisis resilient and well-positioned for the future. Each 30-minute episode features in-depth interviews with Torys lawyers, moderated by Munk Debates convener Rudyard Griffiths. These CPD-accredited episodes are available listen at torys.com/businessbrief.

Open banking was already a hot issue before COVID-19—and now with social distancing and a remote workforce, it has become more important than ever. Torys LLP Partner Joel Ramsey and Senior Associate Ronak Shah discuss open banking and dive into some of the key risks and rewards through the lens of a report from the federal government released earlier this year. Joel and Ronak also set out why there is a sense of underlying urgency as Canada looks to grow an economy that fosters and is focused on innovation. 

In this episode of Torys in 10, private equity partners Mike Akkawi and Guy Berman discuss some of the findings from PE Pulse, Torys’ private equity sentiment survey, the first survey of its kind in the Canadian market. In the podcast, the pair focus on two main takeaways from the survey, which took the opinions and market sentiments of over 100 private equity and pension fund players in Canada. 

The first takeaway is the large deal sizes the PE market saw in 2019 and the reported expectations that these deal sizes will stay the same or increase moving forward. The second is fundraising and how pension fund survey respondents said their allocation of private equity will either stay the same or increase throughout the year—this is in spite of the fact that many respondents said it was going to be more difficult to raise capital. Tune in for Mike and Guy’s full analysis on the survey.  

You can get all of the findings and commentary in PE Pulse here: https://www.torys.com/insights/publications/2020/02/pe-pulse-2020.

Music: Stratosphere - www.adamvitovsky.com.

If you’re a founder of a company ready for the first round of financing, how can you make your company attractive to the right investor? Partner in Torys LLP’s Emerging Companies and Venture Capital practice Kristine Di Bacco and Senior Associate Marko Trivun sit down and discuss two of the things investors are most interested in when assessing whether to deploy capital in a startup: intellectual property and team. 

In this episode you’ll hear the pair unpack these two topics as Marko draws out insights from Kristine from her years of experience advising companies at various stages of their life cycle from conception to sale or IPO.

Music: Stratosphere - www.adamvitovsky.com.