BC Chamber of Commerce Statement on Supreme Court of Canada’s Decision
In response to today’s Supreme Court of Canada’s decision in Sinclair v. Venezia Turismo, 2025 SCC 27, Alex McMillan, CEO (Interim) of the BC Chamber of Commerce, released the following statement:
“The BC Chamber of Commerce welcomes today’s Supreme Court of Canada decision in Sinclair v. Venezia Turismo, 2025 SCC 27 (Sinclair). The case will provide businesses greater certainty and predictability about where legal disputes will be resolved. This judgement will be particularly impactful for British Columbian businesses that are involved in international commerce.
“The case is about when Canadian courts may take jurisdiction over businesses not based in Canada. The BC Chamber of Commerce intervened to provide British Columbia business’ perspective – urging the Court to clarify the legal test for jurisdiction for the benefit of all businesses who may need to appear as litigants before Canadian courts.
“The Chamber also drew the Court’s attention to the fact that the legal test for jurisdiction and the legal test for enforcing foreign judgments are two sides of the same coin. The Court therefore had to strike a careful balance between allowing Canadian businesses to enforce their rights in Canadian courts, on the one hand, and limiting Canadian businesses’ exposure to judgments rendered by foreign courts, on the other.
“The Court’s judgment in Sinclair advances both of those objectives: it enhances the certainty and predictability of the legal test for court jurisdiction, and it avoids an approach to jurisdiction that would expose Canadian businesses to foreign judgments rendered on tenuous jurisdictional footing.
“I would like to express my gratitude to our counsel Tom Posyniak of Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP, Aubin Calvert of Hunter Litigation Chambers, and Layne Hellrung, of Cassels Brock & Blackwell LLP.”
A plain language summary prepared by the Supreme Court of Canada is available here.
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About the BC Chamber of Commerce
The BC Chamber of Commerce is the largest and most broadly based business organization in the province. Representing almost eighty-five local chambers of commerce and boards of trade and close to 32,000 businesses of every size and from every sector and region of the province, the BC Chamber of Commerce is uniquely positioned to “Know What’s on BC’s Mind.”
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