November 2025 Newsletter: News from the BCLI!
November 10, 2025
BY British Columbia Law Institute
Consultation Paper Released
BCLI has released a Consultation Paper on Non-Statutory Liability of Directors and Officers and is looking for feedback on it by 31 December 2025.
There is conflicting case law on when corporate directors and officers may become personally liable to third parties for wrongful acts or omissions of the companies they manage. Lack of clarity in the law creates room for individuals to be sued as co-defendants on tenuous grounds when a company is the main defendant.
The tentative recommendations explained in the Consultation Paper are aimed at providing clearer guidance to courts, protection of individuals against unfair exposure to personal liability, and supporting orderly evolution of the common law on when directors and officer share liability for wrongs committed by their corporations and when not.
Find the Consultation Paper herehttps://www.bcli.org/director-liability.
BCLI Recommendation Implemented: Abolition of the Shimco Lien
Change rarely happens overnight, and sometimes law reform is no exception. Two decades after BCLI first recommended the abolition of the Shimco lien, Bill 20, the Construction Prompt Payment Act, brings that recommendation closer to reality. The BCLI team is always pleased when our recommendations are implemented.
Second Annual Mathew Good Memorial Prize
With the support of Canadian Bar Association, British Columbia (CBABC), we are pleased to announce the second annual BCLI Mathew Good Memorial Prize essay contest. The annual contest awards a prize of $1,000 to an outstanding essay written by a British Columbia law school student. The contest is sponsored by the Law Foundation of British Columbia.
Submissions are open through April 2026. The winning essay will receive a $1,000 prize, generously sponsored by the Law Foundation of British Columbia.
See more information about the contest here.
Congratulations to Thomas Spraggs and Katrina Harry
Congratulations to our former Board Chair, Thomas L. Spraggs, KC, who will serve as President of the Law Society of BC in 2026, and to Katrina Harry, KC, one of our project committee co-chairs, who will serve as Second Vice-President. We’re thrilled to see their leadership recognized and look forward to their contributions to the profession.
We hosted our Project Committee Appreciation Reception to honour the volunteers who contribute their time and expertise to BCLI’s projects. It was wonderful to connect with the people whose efforts help bring our law reform recommendations to life. A special thank you to Board Chair Ed Wilson and his team at Lawson Lundell LLP for graciously hosting the event.
At the beginning of October, staff lawyer Marie Ong, Kevin Zakreski, and articling student Ignacia Mendez, joined by UBC law professors Doug Harris and Adam Hofri, met with the Malaysian Strata Property Delegation. The discussion was engaging, with the delegates asking insightful questions about BC’s strata system. It was fascinating to explore the similarities and differences between our two jurisdictions.
In September, staff lawyer Megan Vis Dunbar spoke at the Thompson Rivers University Research Series about BCLI’s Navigating Shared Waters: A Study Paper on Indigenous-Led Conflict Resolution. Her presentation explored how advancing UNDRIP implementation is increasingly shaping conflict resolution through treaties and Indigenous self-government in BC, and discussed ways to strengthen Crown support for Indigenous-led justice processes.
Not in Canada You Say? – Mark Zuckerberg Dodged Corporate Officer Liability Under US Law– What if he’d been sued in Canada?
This blog post looks at how the attempt in the US to hold Zuckerberg liable for acts of his company Meta might have played out in Canada.
Is Airspace Property?
This blog explores the rights a landowner has to the airspace above their property.
NS Supreme Court denies injunction despite finding applicant had a strong prima facie case
This blog is a summary of a court case in which the applicant couldn’t demonstrate irreparable harm and was therefore denied an injunction in a dispute over control of a group of companies.
Reliance on hearsay, breadth of order lead BC Court of Appeal to deny ministry’s request for a permanent injunction
This blog is a summary of a court case in the BC Ministry of Social Development and Poverty Reduction tried to rely on incident reports to obtain a permanent injunction and failed because the court found the reports to be inadmissible hearsay evidence that couldn’t be admitted through section 42 of the Evidence Act.
BCLI Participates in Uniform Law Conference of Canada’s 2025 Annual Meeting
This blog highlights the Annual Meeting of the Uniform Law Conference of Canada, where government and private sector delegations review legislation, receive project updates, and guide working groups.
Mortgage Law Reform in British Columbia: The Mortgage Services Act
This blog discusses BC’s Mortgage Services Act, passed in 2022 through Bill 29, which will take effect on October 13, 2026, replacing the long-standing Mortgage Brokers Act (MBA) that has governed the industry since 1972.
