Feb 16, 2017

Alleged Acts of Sexual Abuse Pre-Bill 87: Will Bill 87 Apply?

Bill 87 (the “Bill”), which contains significant amendments to the Regulated Health Professions Act, 1991 (“RHPA”),  passed first reading in the Ontario legislature in December 2016. Although the Bill is not yet law, if and when it is enacted, there will be some important changes to the way in which RHPA Colleges deal with allegations of sexual abuse.

Under the Bill, a broader scope of conduct will be considered sexual abuse, and more acts of sexual abuse will result in mandatory revocation. This raises the question: how should Colleges deal with allegations of sexual abuse when the events in question pre-dated these new amendments? Is the member subject to the old RHPA provisions, or might the new provisions apply to the allegations?

The answer? It depends. The law on the application of new legislative provisions to prior conduct is complex and often inconsistent. This bulletin outlines two situations in which this question is likely to arise but it is impossible to give an answer that encompasses every situation, and the discussion below will not apply to all scenarios. As always, Colleges would be wise to consult with legal counsel to determine the appropriate way to proceed in any particular case.

Jan 9, 2017

No Bidding Around: The Competition Bureau Targets Bid-Riggers in 2017

Over the past few years, we have written and presented extensively about how Canada’s Competition Bureau has cracked down on price-fixing and bid-rigging in Canada’s construction industry. In December of 2016, the Bureau announced that as a result of several recent discoveries of illegal bidding practices, it will be intensifying its efforts to identify and prevent bid-rigging, with a particular focus on provincial and municipal infrastructure projects.

Dec 5, 2016

Parental Recognition and Proposed Amendments to Ontario Legislation: Part 2

In February 2016, we wrote about the Cy and Ruby’s Act (Parental Recognition), 2015, which proposed a number of amendments to statutes dealing with parental recognition.   We noted that the proposed amendments (the main amendments being to the Children’s Law Reform Act ) dealt with various typical factual scenarios involving assisted reproduction with donated genetic material from a third party, surrogacy arrangements or the possibility that an intended parent’s own genetic materials would be stored and used at a later time.  One of the goals of the proposed amendments was to facilitate the parental recognition of same-sex partners who rely on assisted reproduction for the conception and birth of children they intend to parent.  Indeed, one of the significant proposed amendments was the replacement of all references to “mother” and “father” with references to “parent”.