Simon's Legal Resources

Federal Court - Privilege

. Google Canada Corporation v. Canada (Commissioner of Competition)

In Google Canada Corporation v. Canada (Commissioner of Competition) (Fed CA, 2026) the Federal Court of Appeal dismissed an appeal, this brought against a discovery refusal ruling within "proceedings in the Competition Tribunal concerning some of the appellants’ online advertising services".

Here the court lauds itself on it's fair and balanced treatment of privilege claims by government regulators:

[27] This Court has acted before to ensure that regulators, even those acting in good faith, do not withhold documents and information under dubious claims of privilege: Vancouver Airport Authority v. Commissioner of Competition, 2018 FCA 24, [2018] 3 F.C.R. 633. Regulators’ assurances such as "“trust us, we’ll do the right thing”" have never gotten much traction in our Court: see, e.g., Canada (Citizenship and Immigration) v. Tennant, 2018 FCA 132 at paras. 23-24; Tsleil-Waututh Nation v. Canada (Attorney General), 2017 FCA 128 at paras. 73-79; Jewish National Fund of Canada Inc. v. Canada (National Revenue), 2026 FCA 63 at paras. 12-13 (and note the consequences of disobeying production orders at paras. 40-43). We are confident that at the hearing the Tribunal will have procedural fairness and full answer and defence front of mind.