No ‘commercial mainstream’ exception allowing receiver to seize on-reserve Indigenous assets: OCA – Law Times
07 Oct 2022
The Ontario Court of Appeal has ruled that s. 89 of the Indian Act prohibits court-appointed receivers from seizing an Indigenous person’s on-reserve businesses and assets.
The ruling overturns Superior Court Justice Stanley Kershman’s conclusion that the appointment of a receiver constituted a “commercial mainstream” exception to s. 89.
The result of Kershman’s order was that the receiver could operate two of Andrew Miracle’s on-reserve businesses, Smokin’ Joes, a gas station that sells confectionaries and tobacco, and the Canna Kure marijuana dispensary. The receivership was to continue until the profits from the business satisfied a debt allegedly owing to Miracle’s former lawyer, Glen Bogue of Toronto, whose license was suspended in 2017 by the Law Society of Ontario.
