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Billions of dollars invested,
not a penny lost.

MATERIAL CHANGE

out approach to

The Supreme Court said the
husband failed to demonstrate a
material change in his circum-
stances since he didn’t show that
he sold his investments, and thus
locked in his losses (the stock
market has rebounded since
2008). Nor did the husband pro-
vide any evidence about his
financial picture at the time of
the 1991 support order — mak-
ing it impossible to determine
whether his finances had deteri-
orated since then, the court held.
Lawyers for the appellant ex-
wives said the court’s rulings are
See Cyberbullying Page 27 See Spouse Page 27
support changes
DAVID GRANDY FOR THE LAWYERS WEEKLY
Dealing with cyberbullying comes with a number of legal issues, says Wayne
MacKay, chair of Nova Scotia’s Cyberbullying Task Force. He is shown at
Dalhousie University’s Schulich School of Law.

of the cyberbully
THE LAWYERS WEEKLY

Notably, the majority rejected the minority’s position that such agreements, as a general rule,

should be given “significant” or “considerable” weight.

CRISTIN SCHMITZ OTTAWA

Ruling lights fire
under insurers

Trial judges considering applications to vary spousal support need not always place weight on divorced couples’ own settlements, the Supreme Court has ruled.

However, the judges went on to unanimously allow the appeals of two Quebecers whose spousal support was terminated by the courts below.

Vol. 22, No. 27 NEWS FOR THE LEGAL PROFESSION December 6, 2002

WIND WARS

In companion December 21 majority judgments, co-authored by Justices Rosalie Abella and Marshall Rothstein, the court maps out the approach judges should follow when an ex-spouse applies under s. 17( 4.1) of the Divorce Act to vary a spousal support order that incorporates the terms of the ex-spouses’ agreement on support.

In L.M.P. v. L.S., the Supreme Court ruled that the lower courts should not have cut off the spousal support of a woman with multiple sclerosis on the basis that she was capable of working but had failed to discharge her obligation to try to become self-sufficient.

THE LAWYERS WEEKLY

The judges split 5-2 on the
question of how much deference
courts should accord to fairly
The top court concluded that
there had not been the requisite
“material change in circumstances”
under s. 17 to justify varying the
original, non-time limited support
order made in 2003. At that time,
the parties knew she had multiple
sclerosis and did not expect her to
seek work. Her medical condition
has not changed since then.

Parrying thrusts

Turbine opponents
face uphill battle

“

CHASING MONEY

There are many cases where you can expect that the support will go on indefinitely, or perhaps for life, and that in order to change it you have to have very clear and convincing evidence.

In the second ruling R.P. v. R.C., the court reversed the Quebec Court of Appeal’s termination of the spousal support of a homemaker in her 80s whose elderly ex-husband claims he can no longer support her, after paying for decades, because he has retired, and his investments were depleted by the economic downturn in 2008.

“A lot of schools say cyberbully-
ing is happening in bedrooms and
malls, not within the school juris-
diction,” he said. But he points out
that courts in the United States
and Canada disagree. “The Amer-
icans have taken the position that
what negatively affects the school
climate is within jurisdiction. The
Ontario education authorities have
added to their jurisdictional act a
clause that says much the same
thing,” said MacKay, a professor in
the Schulich School of Law at Dal-
housie University in Halifax.

DONALEE MOULTON

VOL. 22, NO. 27 NEWS FOR THE LEGAL PROFESSION DECEMBER 6, 2002 VOL. 22, NO. 27 NEWS FOR THE LEGAL PROFESSION DECEMBER 6, 2002

Being pushed around in the playground has taken on a whole new meaning in the Internet environment. It can take place 24/7, and the playground has become global. Now the public, its elected leaders, and the legal community are fighting back.

The CRA is getting more
aggressive in the pursuit
of tax revenue

ONLINE STRATEGY

Nova Scotia has become the first jurisdiction in Canada to establish a cyberbullying task force, following the suicide of two young girls in which bullying was a key factor. The task was formed by provincial Minister of Education Ramona Jennex to explore and make recommendations in four areas: intervention, education, assessment and policy.

In Bill 212, Ontario’s amended education act, bullying became express grounds for student discipline, a legal tenet the provincial Child and Family Services Review Board took to heart in R. T v. Durham Catholic District School Board (EA s.311.7), 2008 CFSRB, when a 13-year-old girl was expelled from school for cyber-bullying, including death threats.

The jurisdictional question extends to fundamental issues of who actually owns the online environment, MacKay said.

Small firms can take on
the big guys online

Julius Grey, Grey Casgrain

THE LAWYERS WEEKLY

negotiated agreements that substantially comply with the objectives of the Divorce Act and that represented the parties’ expectations and intentions when the agreements were signed.

There are thorny legal issues that arise in connection with cyberbullying, starting with jurisdiction, says task force chair Wayne MacKay.

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