Four landmark cases in bankruptcy and insolvency law in Canada

Witness to Yesterday (The Champlain Society Podcast on Canadian History)

In this podcast episode, Nicole O’Byrne talks to Thomas Telfer and Virginia Torrie about their co-authored book Debt and Federalism: Landmark Cases in Canadian Bankruptcy and Insolvency Law, 1894–1937 published as part of the Landmark Cases and Canadian Law Series by the University of British Columbia Press in 2021. Despite having been enshrined in the constitution since confederation, Canadian bankruptcy law eludes straightforward interpretation. Debt and Federalism traces the shifting meanings of the bankruptcy power through four landmark cases in Canadian legal history: the Voluntary Assignments (1894), Royal Bank of Canada vs. Larue (1928), the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act Reference (1934), and the Farmers’ Creditors Arrangement Act Reference (1937). Drawing on archival and legal sources, Thomas Telfer and Virginia Torrie demonstrate how the legal changes introduced by these decisions formed the foundation of modern insolvency law in Canada. Virginia Torrie is the Editor-in-Chief of the Banking and Finance Law Review. She is a former associate professor at the Faculty of Law, University of Manitoba where she taught bankruptcy and insolvency, and Canadian legal history. She is the author of Reinventing Bankruptcy Law: A History of the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act. Dr. Torrie holds JD and LLM degrees from Osgood Hall Law School, and a PhD from the University of Kent. Thomas Telfer is a professor of law at Western University. His teaching and research interests include bankruptcy law, commercial law, and legal history. He is the author of Ruin and Redemption: The Struggle for a Canadian Bankruptcy Law, 1867-1919 and was the co-editor-in-chief of the Canadian Business Law Journal from 2018 to 2022. He was a teaching fellow at the Centre for Teaching and Learning at Western, where he developed a course called Mindfulness and the Legal Profession, as well as developing other mental wellness initiatives for law students and lawyers. This podcast was produced by Jessica Schmidt. If you like our work, please consider supporting it: bit.ly/support_WTY. Your support contributes to the Champlain Society’s mission of opening new windows to directly explore and experience Canada’s past.