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ARTICLE · 11 JANUARY 2021

Former Agriculture Minister Not Required To Testify

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Despite courts moving to electronic hearings whereby theoretically a witness could appear virtually from anywhere in the world, provincial statutes still have rules that protect out of provinces...

CanadaReal Estate and Construction
Stephen Thiele
Stephen Thiele
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Despite courts moving to electronic hearings whereby theoretically a witness could appear virtually from anywhere in the world, provincial statutes still have rules that protect out of provinces witnesses from being required to testify in a domestic action even though their evidence might be relevant.

In  Flying E Ranche Ltd. v. Canada (Attorney General), 2020 ONSC 8095 (CanLII), the inability to comply with the requirements of  section 5(1) of the Interprovincial Summonses Act  (“ISA”) protected former Minister of Agriculture Ralph Goodale, a resident of Saskatchewan, from being summonsed as a witness by the plaintiff in a class action proceeding. At issue in the case was a claim for damages arising out of the transmission of “Mad Cow Disease”.

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