Canadian Commissioner of Competition v. Canadian Real Estate Association

Of Counsel

July 28, 2026

Canada (Commissioner of Competition) v Canadian Real Estate Association [2026 FC 574]

Summary

The most interesting aspect of a recent Federal Court decision involving 26,000 privilege claims may not be the law of privilege, but rather what the case reveals about the increasingly industrial nature of modern eDiscovery.

Following the issuance of an order compelling the Canadian Real Estate Association (“CREA”) to produce records and information to the Commissioner of Competition, CREA produced approximately 50,000 records, and a privilege log containing approximately 26,000 entries, 5,000 of which were redacted.

Hundreds of thousands of dollars were spent on document review, which employed large-scale eDiscovery processes to ensure that every document withheld on grounds of privilege had been properly reviewed.… Read More

Deepfakes and the Evolving Duties of eDiscovery Counsel

Martin Felsky

Senior Counsel

April 28, 2026

The long-standing view that electronic discovery and disclosure can be treated as purely procedural or technical exercises distinct from the law of evidence is no longer tenable. That position was already difficult to sustain in an era of emails and databases. It becomes untenable in the age of synthetic media.

E-discovery (and here I use the term broadly to include disclosure in criminal and regulatory procedure) is about shaping the evidentiary record. What is preserved, collected, filtered, and produced defines what may ultimately be tendered in court. A small but critical subset of that material will be relied upon as evidence.… Read More

Amazon Canada Decision – Ten Lessons to be Learned

Martin Felsky

Senior Counsel

January 20, 2026

Large-scale production orders are no longer exceptional. What is surprising is how often sophisticated litigants underestimate what courts now expect when those orders arrive. The Federal Court’s recent decision in Commissioner of Competition v Amazon.com.ca ULC, 2025 FC 1782, arises in a competition-law investigation under the Competition Act. But it would be a mistake to read it as confined to that regulatory context. The Court’s reasoning reflects expectations that increasingly apply across complex civil litigation, particularly cases involving large-scale electronic production. In substance, this is a decision about modern litigation discipline.… Read More

Heuristica’s Lawyers Recognized by Lexology

Heuristica is pleased to advise that more of its lawyers have again been chosen for inclusion in the 2025 Lexology Index (formerly Who’s Who Legal) eDiscovery rankings than those of any other Canadian law firm.

The following have been selected:

Thought Leaders – Commercial Litigation – E-Discovery Lawyers 2025
- Martin Felsky, Senior Counsel

National Leaders – Canada – E-Discovery Practitioners 2025
- Crystal O’Donnell, Chief Executive Officer and Senior Counsel
- Martin Felsky, Senior Counsel
- Candice Chan-Glasgow, Director, Review Services and Counsel

The Lexology Index research process starts with qualitative analysis; they gather first-hand experience of working with nominees in the industry or practice area, and ground it with continuous quantitative analysis of a range of relevant data points to ensure a rigorous evaluation framework, consistently applied. … Read More

Why PDFs Can Sink Your Case – Preserving Individual Emails the Right Way

Martin Felsky

Senior Counsel

September 15, 2025

The portable document format (PDF) was a breakthrough for the legal profession. It allowed lawyers to share contracts and pleadings in a consistent, easily readable format regardless of the software used to create them. For preserving the appearance of a document, PDF remains an excellent tool.

However, litigation is not only about appearance. It is about substance, history, and context. When a document, especially an email, is converted into PDF, critical metadata is stripped away. That metadata can include the creation date, transmission details, recipients, and other fields that may prove vital to a case.… Read More

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