What is an annotation?
Traditionally, an annotated law will include information about the application and intent behind the sections in a law. While many of the QS Community and Expert annotations will include these types of annotations, we have broadened the definition to also include references to:
- Recent or upcoming changes
- Relevant or historical case law/decisions (with links)
- High-level research-oriented discussion and inquiries
- References to policy or white papers pertaining to a particular law (upload tools available)
By broadening the definition of an annotation, we can deliver a more dynamic, flexible and relevant research tool that will evolve over time and as laws change.
Types of Annotations
Quickscribe 2.0 offers you the ability to make and save annotations as Private (only readable by you) or Organizational (accessible to only those in your organization); both are encrypted. Annotations can also be posted to the Quickscribe Community. These are moderated and some restrictions apply. Quickscribe's Expert Annotators will contribute annotations for the benefit of all users.
In summary, an annotation is any note that offers additional substantive value for our users.
Latest News
Guy Patterson to Contribute Annotations to Quickscribe (Local Government Law)
Quickscribe is pleased to announce that Guy Patterson, partner at Young Anderson in Vancouver, will take over Bill Buholzer's role as Quickscribe's expert annotator in the area of local government planning and land use management. Bill is planning to retire his practice at the end of 2024. Guy began his legal career clerking at the BC Supreme Court before joining the firm in 2014. Guy specializes in planning and land use management law, including subdivision regulation. He also serves as an instructor for the SFU City Program and is an adjunct professor at the UBC School of Community and Regional Planning. Moreover, he frequently speaks at professional development sessions for planners and subdivision approving officers. Prior to attending law school, Guy graduated from the UBC planning school and worked as a planner for local governments and non-profit organizations for nearly a decade.
Residential Tenancy Changes to Notice & Dispute Periods
On August 21, 2024, provisions of 2024 Bill 14, Tenancy Statutes Amendment Act, 2024, were brought into force by B.C. Reg. 251/2024. Both the Residential Tenancy Act and Residential Tenancy Regulation were amended to establish certain time periods related to a landlord ending a tenancy for personal use. Specifically, the changes apply when a landlord enters into an agreement to sell a rental unit in good faith and the purchaser of the unit requests the landlord to give notice to end the tenancy because the purchaser or a close family member of the purchaser intends, in good faith, to occupy the rental unit. In these circumstances, the notice period to end the tenancy must be at least 3 months after the date the tenant receives the notice. A tenant may dispute the notice by making an application for dispute resolution within 21 days after receiving the notice. If a landlord has given notice before August 21, 2024, the notice period and dispute period in effect immediately before that date continue to apply.
Tenancy Statutes Amendments Now In Force
On July 18, changes made by Bill 14, Tenancy Statutes Amendment Act, 2024, to the Residential Tenancy Act and the Manufactured Home Park Tenancy Act came into force. Bill 14 was introduced with the intention of protecting renters from bad-faith evictions and unfair rent increases, providing landlords with more flexibility and clearer guidelines for ending a tenancy with justified cause, and expediting the dispute resolution process. Changes now in force include:
- allowing a person who applies to the director for dispute resolution to abandon part of a claim;
- increasing the amount of notice a landlord must give a tenant when ending a tenancy for personal occupancy;
- requiring landlords to use a standardized online form to issue a personal-use eviction.
Quickscribe has published early consolidations of the remaining amendments in Bill 14 to the Residential Tenancy Act and Manufactured Home Park Tenancy Act, as they will read when the Bill is fully in force.
This provision is mandatory and there is no discretion to order payment to be made to someone other than the PGT. See 2019 BCCA 171 at paras 7 - 11.
Dan Orsetti, Public Guardian And Trustee of British Columbia on WILLS, ESTATES AND SUCCESSION ACT
This section was drawn from section 2.1 of the Arbitration Act, RSBC 1996, c. 55, and is needlessly confusing. On the one hand it seems to say that people can agree to arbitration anything that "may be the subject of a family law dispute in the future," while on the other is s...
John-Paul Boyd QC, John-Paul E. Boyd Arbitration Chambers on FAMILY LAW ACT
Nesbitt v. College of Physicians and Surgeons of British Columbia, 2024 BCSC 1661: Section 24 of the Health Professions Act, R.S.B.C. 1996, c. 183, provides a limited statutory immunity. The immunity applies to members of the College board and persons acting on behalf of ...
Joel Morris, Harper Grey LLP on HEALTH PROFESSIONS ACT
It is not always necessary to show that the proposed action is in the best interest of the estate. It may be sufficient if it is necessary or expedient to protect the interest of a specified person.
Stanley Rule, Sabey Rule LLP on WILLS, ESTATES AND SUCCESSION ACT
This amendment means that all minimum rates will be automatically determined by the previous year's average inflation rate for the province of BC. The increase will take effect on June 1 each year, except for agricultural piece rates that will increase on December 31 eac...
Scott Marcinkow, Harper Grey LLP on EMPLOYMENT STANDARDS ACT
Maddock v. British Columbia, 2022 BCSC 1605: Section 54(h) empowers the Provincial Health Officer ("PHO") to decline the request of a person affected to reconsider (s. 43), review (s. 44), or reassess (s. 45) an order or a variance order during an emergency. This provision exi...
Joel Morris, Harper Grey LLP on PUBLIC HEALTH ACT
The purpose of this provision, embodying as it does the common law “indoor management rule”, is clear: persons doing business with a corporation should not have to be concerned about whether the company’s internal business housekeeping is in order. Instead, i...
Debby Cumberford, Deborah M. Cumberford on BUSINESS CORPORATIONS ACT
Decisions of the court under s. 17 are not limited appeal orders and therefore leave is not required under s. 11 of the Court of Appeal Rules to appeal.
Melanie Harmer, McMillan LLP on JUDICIAL REVIEW PROCEDURE ACT
Provisions in the Act which prohibit specific types of ipso facto clauses, such as this one, which invalidates clauses that grant an accelerated payment or forfeiture of term because of someone’s filing of a Notice of Intention, do not oust the general common law “anti-dep...
Greg GEHLEN, GEHLEN DABBS CASH LLP on BANKRUPTCY AND INSOLVENCY ACT [FEDERAL]
The Mental Health Act has no purpose or principles guiding statutory interpretation and application. In A.T. v. British Columbia (Mental Health Review Board), 2023 BCCA 283 at paras. 68-73 the Court summarized different purposes that can be found through jurisprudenc...
Laura Johnston, Health Justice on MENTAL HEALTH ACT
The theory of corporate identification attributes the intention of a company’s “directing mind” to the corporation for the purposes of establishing corporate mens rea. The doctrine is engaged where the action taken by the directing mind was: within the field ...
Debby Cumberford, Deborah M. Cumberford on BUSINESS CORPORATIONS ACT
The policy considerations underlying section 60 of the Wills, Estates and Succession Act, together with the nature of constructive trusts was the subject of some debate in a series of articles published in The Advocate in 2022.
A healthy and respectful canvassing of p...
D. Michael Bain, K.C., Hamilton Howell Bain & Gould on WILLS, ESTATES AND SUCCESSION ACT
Greg GEHLEN, GEHLEN DABBS CASH LLP on BANKRUPTCY AND INSOLVENCY ACT [FEDERAL]
In Mawhinney v. Stewart, 2023 BCSC 419, the Court considered the parties’ written submissions on costs and damages, which are prescribed under ss. 7 and 8 of the PPPA. In this case, the defendant successfully brought an application to dismiss the plaintiff’s action...
Karen Zimmer, Alexander Holburn Beaudin + Lang LLP on PROTECTION OF PUBLIC PARTICIPATION ACT
The filing of a Notice of Dispute is a "proceeding" for the purpose of this section. After a Notice of Dispute is filed, the court may appoint an administrator pending legal proceedings. In Glendale v. Walker, 2024 BCSC 1947, the disputant successfully brought a petition to ap...
Stanley Rule, Sabey Rule LLP on WILLS, ESTATES AND SUCCESSION ACT
In July 2022 the Ombudsperson’s Office released “Systemic Investigation Update: Report on the Implementation of Recommendations from Committed to Change: Protecting the Rights of Involuntary Patients under the Mental Health Act”, which considers whether ...
Laura Johnston, Health Justice on MENTAL HEALTH REGULATION 233/99
In VM Agritech Limited v. Smith, 2024 BCCA 360, the Court of Appeal upheld the lower court’s jurisdictional orders. Once a plaintiff’s burden with respect to establishing jurisdiction is met on the basis of the real and substantial connection test, it is irrelevant...
OnPoint Legal Research, Onpoint Legal Research Law Corporation on SUPREME COURT CIVIL RULES (B.C. Reg. 168/2009)
In Cohen 2023 BCSECCOM 317 an application was made to the BC Securities Commission for orders than notice delivered under an advance notice policy requiring notice with respect to the election of directors be included in a circular and that the shareholder vote be rest...
Teresa Tomchak, Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP on SECURITIES ACT
The implications of this section are canvassed by Jennifer Bednard in "Will or Will Not: Practice Implications of Section 58 of the Wills, Estates and Succession Act Part I: What is a Testamentary Document Anyway?" (2020) 78 Advocate 527.
D. Michael Bain, K.C., Hamilton Howell Bain & Gould on WILLS, ESTATES AND SUCCESSION ACT
In Singh v Singh, 2020 BCCA 21, the Court of Appeal restricts the nature of the "other factors" that may be argued in favour of reapoprtionment. Justice Garson reviews the specific factors identified in section 95(2) and, applying the principles of statutory interpretation, co...
John-Paul Boyd QC, John-Paul E. Boyd Arbitration Chambers on FAMILY LAW ACT
Section 36 of the Property Law Act does not apply to the Crown land owned or controlled by the Provincial government: Fox v British Columbia (Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development), 2022 BCSC 541
Peter Roberts, Lawson Lundell LLP on PROPERTY LAW ACT
The term "obsolete" means something that is "no longer practised or used, discarded; [and] out of date". A determination of obsolescence is a consideration of the nature of the charge itself in the circumstances of the use of the relevant property and a determinati...
Peter Roberts, Lawson Lundell LLP on PROPERTY LAW ACT
One of the leading decisions on the phrase, "excessive hours" is BC EST # D071/10 Johnston. The employee worked 14 hours on an election day and argued that "excessive" should be interpreted to mean a shift in excess of 12 hours. The Director considered the ...
Scott Marcinkow, Harper Grey LLP on EMPLOYMENT STANDARDS ACT
In Hobbs v. Warner, 2021 BCCA 290, the Court held that the cost provisions prescribed in s. 7 of the PPPA will be presumed to be on a full indemnity basis where the defendant is successful in their application to dismiss pursuant to s. 4.
In this case, the Court interpreted t...
Karen Zimmer, Alexander Holburn Beaudin + Lang LLP on PROTECTION OF PUBLIC PARTICIPATION ACT
In VM Agritech Limited v. Smith, 2024 BCCA 360, the Court of Appeal upheld the lower court’s jurisdictional orders. Once a plaintiff’s burden with respect to establishing jurisdiction is met on the basis of the real and substantial connection test, it is irrelevant...
OnPoint Legal Research, Onpoint Legal Research Law Corporation on COURT JURISDICTION AND PROCEEDINGS TRANSFER ACT
In Mithaq Canada Inc. 2024 ONCMT 9 the Ontario Capital Markets Tribunal (Tribunal) dismissed the application of Mithaq Capital SPC (Mithaq) to cease trade a private placement that Aimia Inc. (Aimia) completed in October 2023. Mithaq had asserted that the private placem...
Teresa Tomchak, Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP on NATIONAL INSTRUMENT 62-104 TAKE-OVER BIDS AND ISSUER BIDS (B.C. Reg. 21/2008)
The Court of Appeal quashed a decision of the Tribunal that denied legal representation on the basis that legal counsel could instead provide assistance anonymously and behind the scenes.
The constitutionality of the Civil Resolution Tribunal's limitation on legal representat...
Melanie Harmer, McMillan LLP on CIVIL RESOLUTION TRIBUNAL ACT
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