Canada Case Law

Northview NS v. Thompson

Court

Nova Scotia Small Claims Court

Allowing an evicted former tenant and an associate with an uncontrolled aggressive dog to occupy a tenant's unit constituted breaches of Statutory Conditions 3 and 4 of s.9(1) of the Residential Tenancies Act and justified termination of the lease, but mitigating factors (long tenancy, some remedial steps) justified replacing immediate termination with a conditional order requiring lock replacement, prohibition of key sharing and exclusion of named persons, with liberty for landlord to seek immediate termination upon breach.

Source excerpt

• Good behaviour (statutory condition)
• Tenant responsibility for guests
• Breach leading to eviction
• Mitigating factors in eviction
• Protection of property act

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Victoria (City) v. Evans

Court

Supreme Court of British Columbia

Interlocutory mandatory and prohibitive injunctions were granted to enforce a dangerous-dog bylaw, after repeated breaches and no exceptional circumstances were shown.

• Dangerous dog designation
• Bylaw enforcement
• Licensing requirements
• Interim remedies
• Municipal ticket informations
• Bylaw-enforcement

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R. v. Sisett

Court

Supreme Court of British Columbia

The appeal was allowed and the conviction set aside. The court found the dog met the bylaw definition of dangerous dog, but not that the appellant caused or permitted it to become dangerous.

• Dangerous dog
• Strict liability
• Due diligence
• Procedural fairness
• Standard of review
• Procedural-fairness

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Sisett v. Central Okanagan (Regional District)

Court

Supreme Court of British Columbia

The court allowed judicial review of bylaw dog tickets, finding the adjudicator treated the offences as absolute liability and failed to address due diligence.

• Strict liability
• Due diligence defence
• Standard of review
• Local government bylaw notice enforcement act
• Strict-liability
• Due-diligence-defence

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Leaf v. Langley (Township)

Court

Supreme Court of British Columbia

Judicial review of Langley bylaw convictions for kennel dog noise succeeded in part: the adjudicator failed to consider due diligence, but the vagueness challenge failed.

• Judicial review
• Standard of review
• Vagueness
• Due diligence defence
• Noise nuisance
• Licensing conditions

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Angerer v. Cuthbert

Court

Yukon Court of Appeal

The Court of Appeal of Yukon adjourned a security-for-costs application and granted only a conditional partial stay of a nuisance injunction against the appellant’s dogs.

• Nuisance
• Injunction
• Security for costs
• Stay pending appeal
• Jurisdiction of single judge
• Security-for-costs

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North Cowichan (District) v. Bradshaw

Court

Supreme Court of British Columbia

The court found a noise bylaw breach from dogs barking and howling at 6803 Norcross Road, granted an injunction on that issue, and dismissed the licensing-based claims.

• Injunction
• Service of process
• Dog licensing
• Kennel licence
• Noise nuisance
• Farm practices protection jurisdiction

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Smith v. Central Okanagan (Regional District)

Court

Supreme Court of British Columbia

The court upheld the finding that Diesel was a dangerous dog, but allowed the appeal in part and stayed destruction pending a possible placement or adoption plan.

• Community charter s.49
• Dangerous dog
• Conditional order
• Standard of review
• Destruction order
• Fresh evidence

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Visinski v. Central Okanagan (Regional District)

Court

Supreme Court of British Columbia

Appeal from a summary conviction for failing to control a dog was allowed because the regional district bylaw did not apply within Kelowna.

• Bylaw territorial application
• Delegation of municipal powers
• Service agreements
• Jurisdiction of regional districts
• Enforcement versus regulatory authority
• Municipal-law

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