Fiduciary Duties in Canada

Robert Flannigan (Professor, University of Saskatchewan College of Law) has recently posted on SSRN his article entitled Fiduciary Accountability Transferred, 35 Advocs. Quarterly 334 (2009).

Here is the abstract of his article:

The Supreme Court of Canada has toyed with the boundaries of fiduciary accountability for three decades. Some of the criteria it has advanced to identify when fact-based accountability will arise (e.g. vulnerability, power differential, reasonable expectation) are vague notions that potentially derail the conventional function of the jurisdiction. Specifically, the criteria may be taken to support the view that fiduciary accountabilityregulates the merits or fairness of the actions of fiduciaries. In BCE Inc. v. 1976 Debentureholders, the court now appears to have explicitly adopted that view, albeit without recourse to any of the criteria it had previously identified. It also appears to have compromised the strict operation of the conventional regulation. The decision represents yet another novel turn, and a radical one, in the court’s mercurial intercourse with fiduciary accountability.