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top cases & Mansfield Alternative Investments II Corp. to approve a restructuring plan for the $32 billion of third-party, asset backed commercial paper. The plan includes an arrangement stopping investors from suing banks, brokerages, financial services com- panies, and bond-rating agencies for losses caused when the short-term investments caved in. The main concern of those who appealed Campbell's decision was whether the court had the jurisdiction to grant third-party releases. While such releases had previously • BCE Inc. v. A Group Of 1976 Debentureholders The stakes really couldn't have been higher for this year's Supreme Court appeal of the BCE Inc. v. A Group of 1976 Debentureholders case: you had the larg- est corporate transaction in Canadian history dealt with by the country's top court in one of the tightest timeframes the court has ever worked under. "Sleep, meals, children, and wife had to be pushed aside," Markus Koehnen, a McMillan Binch Mendelsohn LLP lawyer who represented BCE bondholders, told Law Times at the time. The case certainly provided the biggest media spectacle of the year in Canadian courts, with journalists reporting live during the proceedings. The top court's decision clearly had major implications for the country's business community, • R. v. AM and R. v. Kang-Brown The Supreme Court of Canada gave a stern rebuke this year to police use of sniffer dogs in certain circumstances. In a 6-3 majority decision in R. v. AM, the court in April ruled cops shouldn't have used their canine helpers in cases involving a Sarnia high school student and a man at a Calgary bus terminal. The Supreme Court said the individuals' right against unreasonable search and seizure were trampled on when cops let their dogs loose to search the student's school and the bus stop where the man was attending. There should have been more objective proof for police to suspect drugs existed in the areas before searching, the court ruled. received short shrift from the courts, appeal court Justice Robert Blair fully addressed the matter in the court's reasons. Blair's ruling clarifies and expands upon the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act, giving the bar lots of room for flexibility when making these kinds of arrangements. He also made clear that courts will actively apply and interpret the legislation. "It certainly gives restructuring practi- tioners further ammunition for creativity and flexibility in the plans they put for- ward," said Jonathan Wigley of Gardiner a fact noted not only by the media. The court dealt with the matter on an expe- dited basis, severely slashing its usual three- to four-month time frame for ren- dering a decision. The case involved a $52-billion buyout offer led by the Ontario Teachers' Pen- sion Plan. The deal was threatened after the Quebec Court of Appeal in May ruled the deal wrongfully ignored bondholders' interests. The Supreme Court overturned that decision in June in a unanimous 7-0 decision. The top court didn't immedi- ately offer reasons for its decision, but planned to put them forward within six months. The ruling was generally viewed as a good thing by the business community, offering clarity going forward in terms of corporate responsibilities to shareholders and bondholders. Some had speculated The one case involved the student, identified only as A.M., who was charged with drug offences in 2002. Schools in his district had invited police to search for drugs, and during one such search stu- dents were forced to remain in classrooms. The Supreme Court said the search, in which marijuana and magic mushrooms were found in the student's bag, violated the student's rights, and that students are entitled to privacy at school. The second case, R. v. Kang-Brown, involved Gurmakh Kang-Brown, who police found to have cocaine in his luggage following a sniffer dog search at a Grey- hound bus stop. The court noted that the police program under which the search was Roberts LLP. "I think it's a good thing." The appeal court's decision, which stands after the Supreme Court denied a leave to appeal application, now has added significance in the current economic downturn. The many businesses facing insolvency will likely look at the ruling when pondering restructuring. An investors committee that drafted the ABCP restructuring plan hoped to have the process wrapped up by Sept. 30, but the final touches still weren't made by early December. that Canadian companies would have trouble attracting foreign investment if the deal was blocked. "It's a clear indication that the court agrees that directors placed in the posi- tion the BCE directors were placed [in] were quite correct in what they did in the sense that they did not cave-in to the demands of the bondholders who were asking for things that were not in their contracts," said Raynold Langlois of Langlois Kronström Desjardins, who represented an intervener shareholder in the case. But, while the case was instructive, finaliza- tion of the underlying deal seemed unlikely as the Dec. 11 deadline neared. The massive takeover was thrown into doubt when KPMG was unable to give BCE a favourable solvency opinion, as it would have to take on $32 bil- lion in debt upon privatization. conducted was doing important work to combat drug trafficking, but said constitu- tional rights can't be compromised. Blake Cassels & Graydon LLP lawyer Shashu Clacken, who was counsel for the intervener Justice for Children and Youth in AM, said the case instructs police that a standard of "reasonable suspicion" must be reached before using sniffer dogs. But she said it's still unclear just what that means. "It's sort of difficult to say what kind of sniffer dog searches are constitutionally permissible, which ones will be upheld by the courts as being reasonable, pursuant to the standard they've laid out," she said, noting that the standard "is not precisely designed." 2008 top news & newsmakers 9