Canadian Lawyer

UPFRONT 10 www.canadianlawyermag.com QUEBEC UPDATE SCC guides on police powers Officer found civilly liable for arresting student who refused to hold handrail A REASONABLE POLICE officer would not consider the failure to hold a subway station escalator handrail to be an offence deserving of arrest, a unanimous Supreme Court of Canada ruled in allowing the appeal of a woman arrested for not following police orders and who later sued to recover damages. In Kosoian v. Société de transport de Montréal, 2019 SCC 59, the court considered whether a police officer should be held civilly liable for arresting a person who refused to hold the handrail after being told to do so and having seen the sign labelled "CAUTION" and showing a stick figure holding the handrail. The officer in the case was liable for a civil fault, the court found. There was no law or bylaw indicating indi- viduals were required to hold escalator hand- rails, and a reasonable police officer looking at STM's sign would have concluded the picto- gram simply advised users to be careful and did not impose an obligation, the court found. Bela Kosoian was on an escalator in a Montreal subway station when police officer Fabio Camacho warned her to hold the handrail. When she refused, she was taken to a holding room, handcuffed, had her bag searched and was charged with disobeying the sign and hindering the officers in their duties. Fines were imposed at $420. Kosoian filed a complaint with STM after being diagnosed with anxiety, a sprained wrist and abrasions. STM instituted penal proceed- ings in Municipal Court, which acquitted Kosoian of the offences. She initiated a case for civil liability against Camacho, STM and the City of Laval. The Court of Quebec dismissed her action, and the appeal was dismissed. NEWS BRIEFS Appellate court upholds religious symbols bill On Dec. 12, Quebec's highest court denied an injunction to suspend parts of the Act respecting the laicity of the State, known as Bill 21, which uses the Charter's notwithstanding clause to suspend Charter rights. The legislation bans many civil servants from wearing of religious symbols by public servants. The appellate court said the law should be allowed to stand while courts decide whether the law violates the Constitution. Chief Justice Nicole Duval Hesler, dissenting in the judgment, found the harm caused by the legislation, in particular to female teachers, outweighed the benefits the government attached to it. BGO-Legal merges with Dunton Rainville BGO-Legal and Dunton Rainville announced their merger on Nov. 18. BGO-Legal, a boutique commercial firm, was established in Sherbrooke in 2017 by Dominique Gilbert and Andrée-Anne Ouimette. Dunton Rainville was founded in 1954 under the name Beaudoin, Riel and adopted its present name in 1988 after integrating several other firms. With offices in Montreal, Laval, Longueuil, Joliette, Saint-Jérôme, Saint-Jean-sur- Richelieu and now Sherbrooke, it employs a staff of nearly 250. "We are very proud to . . . welcome a dynamic team of experienced professionals whose reputation is well established to our ranks," said Yanick Tanguay, vice chairman of Dunton Rainville's executive committee, in a press release. Quebec makes further amendments to cannabis regulations Two new regulations related to the sale of cannabis products in Quebec were set to come into effect in January. The minimum age for purchase will rise to 21 from 18 years. And, cannabis edible products that look like candies or are attractive to youth will be prohibited for sale, as well as (for now, at least) vaping products and cannabis extracts in vapes. "That makes Quebec more restrictive than anywhere else in Canada" regarding both consumer age and product types, says Tricia Kuhl of Blake Cassels & Graydon LLP in Montreal. Residence held in trust included in family patrimony A family residence held in a trust that was not owned by either spouse can be included in the family patrimony for division on spousal separation in Quebec, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled in December. In Yared v. Karam, the majority of the court found that, although neither spouse owned the family home, the husband, who had co-established the trust that purchased the house, had "rights which confer use" to it and control over it, including the ability to decide who could use the home and who had a right to its value. Provincial, not maritime law applies to engine contract The Supreme Court of Canada allowed a Quebec shipping transport company's claim against a supplier in a division of powers appeal, with the majority relying on the double aspect doctrine to rule that provincial law can apply to a marine engine contract. In Desgagnés Transport Inc. v. Wärtsilä Canada Inc., a constitutional law case, the court decided that provincial contract law and not federal maritime law applied to a contract for ship-engine parts. The majority of the court found that. although the sale of such parts does fall under federal maritime law because it has an integral connection to navigation and shipping, selling goods is governed by property and civil rights over which the provinces maintain power.

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