Over the last few months I have attended two 90th birthday parties. Both had a common theme for me, which was how good it is to have family and friends around. Both of these 90 year old gentleman are still sharp, engaging and while less active than they once were,…
A battle has been waging in Canada since 2012 over “political activities” by registered charities. The previous Federal Government initiated an audit by Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) of 60 registered charities, which was discontinued in 2017 by the current government. On July 16, 2018, the Ontario Superior Court of…
In my last blog I described some important changes to the Ontario Disability Support Program (“ODSP”). Specifically, I looked at certain provisions of Ontario Regulation 278/18 (“Amending Regulation”), which amended Ontario Regulation 222/98, the General ODSP Regulation (“ODSP Regulation”), to: eliminate the $10,000 limit on voluntary payments to ODSP recipients…
This fact scenario is based on a situation presented to me recently and I appreciated the opportunity to being “re-educated” on the tax treatment of pension plan lump sum payments. A taxpayer’s spouse retires as a teacher and elects to start receiving her guaranteed pension. A couple of year later,…
I am one of the lucky ones. I like what I do and I enjoy my work very much. The counsellors who work with me say the same thing and while we do deal with much sadness, we always try and find the positive in our daily work. This is…
In my last blog, I began looking at the treatment of the “matrimonial home” under the Ontario Family Law Act, and promised to continue that discussion in my next blog, which of course is this blog. I have decided to put that discussion over to my next blog, and instead…
This Blog was written by: Peter Meitanis WANTED: The Beneficial Owners of Real Estate in British Columbia If you’re a fan of movies about the Wild West, you’ll know that many plotlines revolve around a mysterious stranger coming to town. But in British Columbia, the mysterious strangers aren’t riding into…
The Department of Finance recently released draft legislation for consultation. The draft rules serve to implement measures announced in the 2018 Federal Budget including rules affecting trust income tax reporting. For trust returns that are required to be filed for the 2021 and subsequent taxation years, Budget 2018 proposed that…
Section 4(1) of the Health Care Consent Act (HCCA) sets out a two-part test for determining whether a person has the capacity to consent to medical treatment, to be admitted to a care facility, or to receive a personal assistive service/device: Is the person able to understand information relevant to…
By: Giancarlo Mignardi, Summer Law Student Two years later and, given the absence of any further noteworthy cases on point, including a Supreme Court decision, this blogger believes that further discussion about discriminatory wills is warranted. In Spence v BMO Trust Company,[1] the Ontario Court of Appeal (“ONCA”) delivered…
