• Explain the Canadian Legal System impacts on business.

Case Studies:

Case Study 1:

Pierre is a fisherman. The Canadian government passes a new law that states "Fish can only be caught on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday, and only between the hours of 7 AM and 10 PM. Pierre catches an octopus in the sea on a Sunday. The fish police catch him and give him a ticket for breaking the new law. Pierre goes to court, because he says an octopus is not a fish. The judge finds him guilty, and says that all animals in the sea, except mammals, are 'fish'.

Questions:

1. Identify which of the laws disclosed by this case study would be statute law and which would be common law.
2. Describe, without reference to the facts in the case study, how common law and statute law interact with each other.

Case Study 2:

Werner lives in Vancouver, B.C. and wishes to visit his cottage in the province of Nova Scotia, Canada. However, due to the coronavirus, the government of Nova Scotia passes a law that bans any person who is not a full time resident of Nova Scotia from entering the province. Werner is outraged.

Questions:

1. What can he do?
2. What two things can the government do if it feels that the restriction is justified? Fully explain each point.

Case Study 3:

Manitoba decides that it may wish to separate from the rest of Canada. In preparation for this, it decides to create a $4.00 coin, (the "Double-Double") which they would allow to be used by all businesses in Manitoba.

Questions:

1. Is the province entitled to pass a law that allows this coin? Why or why not?
2. If the Federal government was unhappy about this, what steps could they attempt?

Case Study 4:

Angelo's Gold Factory Inc. v. Anthony Pipolo Incorporated, 2007 CanLII 80119 (ON SC) The plaintiff had been unsuccessful in its attempts to serve the defendants by personal service. The plaintiff's lawyer then served the statement of claim on a lawyer who was representing the defendants in other matters. The lawyer had not obtained his clients' authorization to accept service of the statement of claim. None of the defendants responded to the statement of claim, so the plaintiff obtained default judgment against them. In this action, the defendants applied to have the default judgment set aside.

Question:

1. Explain the nature of their complaint and the likely outcome. In your answer consider the role of fairness in the administration of justice and whether practical requirements should be permitted to overrule the requirement of procedural fairness within court processes or when dealing with government tribunals.