It has not taken long for Ontario litigants to begin feeling the impact of the recent decision by Canada’s Supreme Court that protection of solicitor-client privilege required the removal of plaintiff’s counsel in Celanese Canada Inc. v. Murray Demolition. If there was any doubt as to the serious consequences that can flow from counsel’s receipt and review of an opposing party’s privileged documents, that doubt was surely erased for a defendant that was recently deprived of its counsel of choice at the beginning of trial.

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In its recent decision in Celanese Canada Inc. v. Murray Demolition Corp. the Supreme Court of Canada unanimously favoured protecting solicitor-client privilege over the right to be represented by one’s solicitor of choice.

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In its first review of the lifespan of litigation privilege, the Supreme Court of Canada has recently ruled that, unlike solicitor-client privilege, it ‘expires with the litigation of which it was born.’

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Mediators breathed a collective sigh of relief when the Ontario Divisional Court upheld the confidentiality of mediations by refusing to compel a mediator to testify about communications between parties at a mediation. Rudd v. Trossacs Investments

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Pre-trial rulings in the Competition Bureau’s prosecution of David Stucky for an alleged lottery participations and prize promotions scam have held that the Bureau can share information obtained from search warrants with foreign competition authorities, and that public interest privilege cannot be established on a class basis.

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