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Oct 09 2025

Upcoming Changes to Mental Health Act

On December 3, the Mental Health Amendment Act, 2022 will come into force, bringing changes to the Mental Health Act that will ensure people involuntarily admitted under the Act understand their legal rights. Under the Act, involuntary patients must be informed of their rights when they are involuntarily admitted, transferred to another designated facility, or when their involuntary status is renewed. The changes will give involuntary patients the choice to meet with a free, independent rights advisor who will provide advice to patients about the circumstances of their detention and options if they disagree with detention decisions.

The legislation further outlines the duties of rights advisors and the responsibilities of directors of designated mental health facilities in facilitating access to the service.

According to the government, rights-advice services will be delivered by a team of independent rights advisors, primarily using videoconferencing and phones.

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Oct 09 2025

Bill 25 Supports Multi-Unit Housing and Short-Term Rental Changes

Bill 25, the Housing and Municipal Affairs Statutes Amendment Act, 2025, was introduced on October 9 and will support the implementation of small-scale, multi-unit housing requirements as well as changes to the government's short-term rental rules.

The Bill proposes amendments to the Local Government Act and Vancouver Charter to prevent local governments from placing further restrictions that inhibit building more forms of housing, such as triplexes, rowhomes and townhomes. Other amendments expand the list of site standards that can be regulated, such as parking requirements and buildable area.

The Bill also amends the Short-Term Rental Accommodations Act to provide greater clarity on the rules so that existing or prospective short-term rental hosts can more easily understand and comply with the Act. The amendments also introduce new tools for strengthening enforcement to deter people from breaking the rules by:

  • enabling compliance and enforcement actions when false information is provided during the registration process;
  • publishing compliance orders and penalties; and
  • allowing the director of short-term rentals to reduce or cancel administrative monetary penalties by agreement to encourage faster compliance.
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Oct 09 2025

Vancouver Charter Changes Introduced for Authority to Dissolve Vancouver Park Board

Bill 26, Vancouver Charter Amendment Act, 2025, was introduced on October 9. The Bill proposes changes to the Vancouver Charter, granting authority to Vancouver city council to dissolve the Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation by bylaw if approved by local voters in a referendum. The Vancouver city council will decide when and if a referendum will be held and, if the vote is successful, jurisdiction over all areas designated as parks in the city of Vancouver would be transferred to Vancouver city council. The legislation also requires a unanimous vote of Vancouver council, along with an assent vote, for removing a permanent park designation. Permanent parkland transferred to First Nations would be exempt from the assent vote. 

If passed, the Bill will come into force on Royal Assent.

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Recent Contributions From Our Experts

Oppression claims are subject to the Limitation Act. There is, however, no time bar to the court’s exercise of its jurisdiction to grant a remedy under this section, save for what might arise out of the equitable defence of laches. A laches defence will lie if the defendant c...

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Debby Cumberford, Deborah M. Cumberford on BUSINESS CORPORATIONS ACT

This section qualifies the application of s. 364(4) insofar as a limitation defence is invoked. In this case, in November 2020, the plaintiff corporation filed a claim against the defendants. The claim was declared a nullity because, at the time of filing, the plaintiff was di...

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Debby Cumberford, Deborah M. Cumberford on BUSINESS CORPORATIONS ACT

In CARDON Group, Re., 2024 BCIPC 102, the adjudicator exercised her discretion available under s. 50(1) of PIPA to cancel an inquiry which was deemed moot, as a result of the applicant revealing during her submissions that she already had a copy of the unredacted documents at ...

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Karen Zimmer, Alexander Holburn Beaudin + Lang LLP on PERSONAL INFORMATION PROTECTION ACT

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...

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Melanie Harmer, McMillan LLP on CIVIL RESOLUTION TRIBUNAL 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.

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Melanie Harmer, McMillan LLP on JUDICIAL REVIEW PROCEDURE 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 determination of whet...

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Peter Roberts, Lawson Lundell LLP on PROPERTY LAW 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 placement was ...

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Teresa Tomchak, Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP on NATIONAL INSTRUMENT 62-104 TAKE-OVER BIDS AND ISSUER BIDS (B.C. Reg. 21/2008)

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...

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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 the C...

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Joel Morris, Harper Grey LLP on HEALTH PROFESSIONS 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...

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Joel Morris, Harper Grey LLP on PUBLIC HEALTH 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

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Peter Roberts, Lawson Lundell LLP on PROPERTY LAW 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.

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D. Michael Bain, K.C., Hamilton Howell Bain & Gould on WILLS, ESTATES AND SUCCESSION 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 positi...

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D. Michael Bain, K.C., Hamilton Howell Bain & Gould 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 each yea...

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Scott Marcinkow, Harper Grey LLP on EMPLOYMENT STANDARDS ACT

Re: Matter of E.L.K. & Application for Warrant s.28(3) Mental Health Act, 2023 BCPC 172 and Re: Matter of N.L. & Application for Warrant s. 28(3) Mental Health Act, 2025 BCPC 55 are two rare examples of published reasons for decision applying the statutory criteria to determin...

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Laura Johnston, Health Justice on MENTAL HEALTH 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.

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Stanley Rule, Sabey Rule LLP on WILLS, ESTATES AND SUCCESSION 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 dictionary definit...

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Scott Marcinkow, Harper Grey LLP on EMPLOYMENT STANDARDS ACT

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.

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Dan Orsetti, Public Guardian And Trustee of British Columbia on WILLS, ESTATES AND SUCCESSION ACT

In Insurance Corporation of British Columbia v. Ari, 2025 BCCA 131, the BC Court of Appeal upheld the judgment of the Honourable Mr. Justice N. Smith (2024 BCSC 964), to award aggregate damages of $15,000 per class member for a serious breach of privacy by a former employee of...

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Karen Zimmer, Alexander Holburn Beaudin + Lang LLP on PRIVACY ACT

In Sarao v. Fraser Health Authority, 2025 BCCA 267, the Court of Appeal upheld the chambers judge’s order granting the respondent’s application to strike the appellant’s claim for lack of jurisdiction. The essential character of the dispute fell within the scope of the labour ...

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OnPoint Legal Research, Onpoint Legal Research Law Corporation on LABOUR RELATIONS CODE

In Wang v. Li, 2025 BCCA 256, the Court of Appeal dismissed two appeals in related family and civil proceedings concerning the respondent ex-wife, her parents, and the appellant ex-husband and their various assets located in BC and China. With respect to certain of the Chinese...

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OnPoint Legal Research, Onpoint Legal Research Law Corporation on FAMILY LAW ACT

In April 2025 the British Columbia Human Rights Commissioner published the results of an inquiry into practices under s. 59 of the Adult Guardianship Act. “We’re still here": Report of the Inquiry into detentions under the Adult Guardianship Act documents some detentions takin...

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Laura Johnston, Health Justice on ADULT GUARDIANSHIP 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...

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John-Paul Boyd QC, John-Paul E. Boyd Arbitration Chambers on FAMILY LAW 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...

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Stanley Rule, Sabey Rule LLP on WILLS, ESTATES AND SUCCESSION ACT

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 restrained u...

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Teresa Tomchak, Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP on SECURITIES ACT

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