Site-Specific Rights: Cases That Should Have Gone to the Supreme Court of Canada, But Didn’t!

Welcome to Cases That Should Have Gone to the Supreme Court of Canada, But Didn’t! This week, lawyer Kyla Lee discusses businesses and site-specific rights.

Acumen Law Corporation lawyer Kyla Lee gives her take on a made-in-Canada court case each week and discusses why these cases should have been heard by Canada’s highest court: the Supreme Court of Canada.


Fun Club International operated a cigar lounge in Quebec. Unfortunately, the city bylaws where the lounge was located didn’t allow for cigar lounges to be operating. However, because it had been there for so long, it was exempt from the application of that bylaw. Sadly, the building in which Fun Club had their cigar lounge was sold and they had to move their business to another location a few blocks down the road.

The city tried to shut down the new location, stating that it was in violation of city bylaws. The court ultimately determined that the bylaw exemption was site-specific, and as soon as Fun Club was not allowed to operate on that site any longer, they weren’t allowed to operate a cigar lounge at all.

The Supreme Court of Canada missed the opportunity here to make the playing field a little bit more fair between cities, businesses and individuals.

Watch the video for more.

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