The difference between debt and equity claims can cause confusion among lenders, creditors, and insolvency professionals alike. In Tudor Sales Ltd. (Re), the British Columbia Supreme Court provided further judicial guidance on this distinction.

On November 9, 2017, the Supreme Court of Canada granted the Alberta Energy Regulator and the Orphan Well Association’s request for leave to appeal from the decision in Grant Thornton Ltd. v. Alberta Energy Regulator, 2017 ABCA 124.

Earlier this year, the Alberta Court of Appeal, in Grant Thornton Ltd. v. Alberta Energy Regulator, 2017 ABCA 124 decided that secured creditors in a bankruptcy should be paid before environmental claims arising from abandoned oil and gas wells. There was a strong dissent and Alberta’s energy regulator is seeking leave to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada.

On March 9, 2017, the Supreme Court of Canada granted leave to appeal from the Ontario Court of Appeal’s ruling that there was no jurisdiction to grant equitable subordination under Canada’s Company Creditors and Arrangement Act (“CCAA“) which is often compared to Chapter 11 proceedings in the U.S.

Both of Canada’s primary insolvency statutes, the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act (“BIA”) and the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act (“CCAA”) provide for an automatic stay of all legal proceedings when an insolvent debtor files for or seeks insolvency protection. The purpose of the stay is to provide breathing space to a debtor attempting to restructure its business so as to avoid “death by a thousand cuts” and also to ensure similarly situated creditors are treated equally.

In Wong v. Luu, the British Columbia Court of Appeal upheld an order requiring the production of a redacted trust ledger to the bankruptcy trustees for Luu Hung Viet Derrick (“Luu”) on the grounds that the trust ledger was not presumptively privileged and that production would not violate the bankrupt’s right to communicate in confidence with his lawyers.

In Akagi v. Synergy Group (2000) Inc. (“Akagi“), the Ontario Court of Appeal set aside a series of ex parte orders made by Toronto’s Commercial List Court granting broad investigative powers to a court-appointed receiver.