Last year, in celebration of our firm’s tenth anniversary, we provided a list of the top ten new laws that would be affecting Ontarians.

This month marks nine months since the first COVID-19 lockdown in March 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic has substantially impacted small businesses, including those in Toronto who are currently subject to a grey - lockdown period which began on November 23 and was extended until January 21, 2021.

It is common for individuals and businesses to find themselves on the receiving end of a lawsuit and being unsure of what to do.

The recent case Elias Restaurant v Keele Sheppard Plaza Inc., 2020 ONSC 5457 involved a commercial landlord-tenant dispute between a Black owned restaurant tenant and its plaza landlord. The Tenant, Elias Restaurant is owned by a Black married couple and serves African/Caribbean cultural food. It caters primarily, but not exclusively, to a Black community customer base. This use of the premises was completely consistent with the terms of the lease.

In our August 11, 2020 article, we previously wrote about the enforcement of residential evictions in Ontario, which were temporarily suspended at the outset of the pandemic. Resumption of residential evictions began on August 4, 2020. At the time that the temporary freeze on evictions came into effect, there were approximately 3,000 evictions in the City of Toronto (the “City”) that had been placed on hold. As enforcement of these back-logged evictions proceeds, there are serious concerns that mass evictions will occur, resulting in a wave of increased homelessness that the City must handle.

At the outset of the pandemic, the Court ordered a ban on the enforcement of residential evictions tribunal orders. This ban ended on July 31, 2020 and evictions are now enforceable as of August 4, 2020.

Many tenants and landlords alike have become increasingly concerned about the changes that the Government of Ontario is proposing to make to the Residential Tenancies Act (“RTA”).

Under the Residential Tenancies Act (“RTA”), landlords may only evict tenants for certain reasons. However, in a hot rental market, landlords may falsify reasons to evict a tenant, so that the unit may be renovated and re-rented at a much higher price. This is known as a “renoviction”.

On Monday, May 4 at 12:01 a.m., the Ontario government reopened a large portion of the construction industry. However, in order to resume construction, contractors must comply with strict public health measures and operate safely during the COVID-19 outbreak. This article takes a look at how your residential construction project may be impacted going forward.

A concerning impact of COVID-19 is the impact on child access arrangements. Naturally, parents have their children’s best interests in mind, and this extends to minimizing the possibility that children will be exposed to the COVID-19 virus. In a nuclear family, ensuring minimal contact with the virus would require keeping children at home. But this solution is more complicated for families where biological parents are living apart.