Davies

Return To Profile

• Acted for the Canadian Civil Liberties Association as intervenor in S.L. v. Commission scolaire des Chênes, in which the Supreme Court of Canada had to decide the circumstances under which parents may request that their children be excused from attending mandatory classes on the basis that they interfere with their freedom of religion.

• Acted successfully for BCE Inc. and Bell Canada in an appeal before the Supreme Court of Canada in the landmark case involving the proposed $51.7 billion privatization of BCE and the attempt by certain holders of debentures of Bell Canada (BCE's subsidiary) to prevent court approval of the transaction on the basis that the transaction failed to properly protect their interests. In a unanimous decision, the Supreme Court of Canada reversed the previous decision from the Québec Court of Appeal, rejected the claims made by the debentureholders, and restored the trial judge's approval of the transaction.

• Acted for Ludco Enterprises Ltd. in its successful challenge of federal income tax assessments in relation to the issue of deductibility of interest on borrowed money used to purchase shares (before the Tax Court of Canada, the Federal Court of Canada, the Federal Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court of Canada).

• Acted successfully for Pharmascience Inc. and secured the dismissal of a $3.9-billion class action against manufacturers of generic medications in relation to allegations of improper pricing of medications subsidized under the provincial drug insurance system.

• Acted successfully for Concordia University in the Bisaillon v. Concordia University case before the Supreme Court of Canada. Davies argued that the Superior Court had no jurisdiction to entertain a class action initiated by Bisaillon claiming the payment by Concordia of well over $100 million to the pension fund of its employees.

• Acted successfully on behalf of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce in favour of Wal-Mart before the Supreme Court of Canada in an appeal concerning the scope of the employer's right to cease operations, even where the alleged reason for the business closure was the employer's unwillingness to deal with a union that had recently obtained certification of the workplace. The majority of the Supreme Court held that although anti-union animus could, in principle, constitute the basis for awarding compensation under the unfair labour practice provisions of the Québec Labour Code, the wrongful dismissal provisions assumed the continued existence of a workplace.

• Acted successfully for The Globe and Mail in its appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada involving the boundaries of freedom of expression and more particularly, the extent of the protection of confidentiality of journalistic sources and the availability of publication bans to protect confidential communications.

• Acted successfully for the Société de transport de Montréal (STM) in a dispute with Bombardier Transport Canada Inc. and Alstom Canada Inc. concerning the $1.2-billion contract for the renewal of the cars of the Montréal subway. The Superior Court granted the STM's motion to dismiss the motion for declaratory judgement instituted by the subway car manufacturers.

• Acted for Pharmascience Inc. in the defence of an action challenging the legality (on various grounds, including alleged violations of the Competition Act) of the so-called "pseudogeneric" or "ultrageneric" drug market.

• Acting for Agence métropolitaine de transport (AMT) in defence to a multi-million dollar class action instituted on behalf of train users as a result of alleged delays in the train service on two of AMT's train lines.

• Acted for the Québec Business Council on the Environment in connection with its intervention before the Supreme Court of Canada in St. Lawrence Cement, the first environmental class action case emanating from Québec which the Supreme Court agreed to hear since the inception of the class action regime in Québec.