The Supreme Court of Canada recently cited a case comment authored by 2021 Law alum Heidi Esslinger, titled Creditors Over Contract: A Case Comment on Chandos, 2021 19th Annual Review of Insolvency Law, 2021 CanLIIDocs 13565.

In Peace River Hydro Partners v Petrowest Corp., 2022 SCC 41, the court ruled that an arbitration agreement does not trump a lawsuit and unanimously dismissed the appeal. Citing Esslinger, the court highlighted that the long-standing tension between arbitration law and insolvency law has been recently emphasized due, in part, to economic shocks such as the 2008 financial crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic. This has placed greater demand on Canada’s insolvency laws. The Court concluded the enforceability of arbitration agreements must be assessed on a case-by-case basis and the analysis will be fact-specific.

You can read Esslinger’s paper here.