How to Enforce a Judgment in Ontario
Lawyers Enforcing Judgments in Ontario
Enforcement of Orders and Awards in Ontario
Enforcing Arbitration & International Arbitration Award
Enforce Injunctions – Domestic and Foreign

Section 178 of the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act, RSC 1985, c B-3 provides:

Debts not released by order of discharge

178 (1) An order of discharge does not release the bankrupt from

(a) any fine, penalty, restitution order or other order similar in nature to a fine, penalty or restitution order, imposed by a court in respect of an offence, or any debt arising out of a recognizance or bail;

(a.1) any award of damages by a court in civil proceedings in respect of

(i) bodily harm intentionally inflicted, or sexual assault, or

(ii) wrongful death resulting therefrom;

(b) any debt or liability for alimony or alimentary pension;

(c) any debt or liability arising under a judicial decision establishing affiliation or respecting support or maintenance, or under an agreement for maintenance and support of a spouse, former spouse, former common-law partner or child living apart from the bankrupt;

(d) any debt or liability arising out of fraud, embezzlement, misappropriation or defalcation while acting in a fiduciary capacity or, in the Province of Quebec, as a trustee or administrator of the property of others;

(e) any debt or liability resulting from obtaining property or services by false pretences or fraudulent misrepresentation, other than a debt or liability that arises from an equity claim;

(f) liability for the dividend that a creditor would have been entitled to receive on any provable claim not disclosed to the trustee, unless the creditor had notice or knowledge of the bankruptcy and failed to take reasonable action to prove his claim;

(g) any debt or obligation in respect of a loan made under the Canada Student Loans Act, the Canada Student Financial Assistance Act or any enactment of a province that provides for loans or guarantees of loans to students where the date of bankruptcy of the bankrupt occurred

(i) before the date on which the bankrupt ceased to be a full- or part-time student, as the case may be, under the applicable Act or enactment, or

(ii) within seven years after the date on which the bankrupt ceased to be a full- or part-time student;

(g.1) any debt or obligation in respect of a loan made under the Apprentice Loans Act where the date of bankruptcy of the bankrupt occurred

(i) before the date on which the bankrupt ceased, under that Act, to be an eligible apprentice within the meaning of that Act, or

(ii) within seven years after the date on which the bankrupt ceased to be an eligible apprentice; or

(h) any debt for interest owed in relation to an amount referred to in any of paragraphs (a) to (g.1).

Court may order non-application of subsection (1)

(1.1) At any time after five years after the day on which a bankrupt who has a debt referred to in paragraph (1)(g) or (g.1) ceases to be a full- or part-time student or an eligible apprentice, as the case may be, under the applicable Act or enactment, the court may, on application, order that subsection (1) does not apply to the debt if the court is satisfied that

(a) the bankrupt has acted in good faith in connection with the bankrupt’s liabilities under the debt; and

(b) the bankrupt has and will continue to experience financial difficulty to such an extent that the bankrupt will be unable to pay the debt.

Claims released

(2) Subject to subsection (1), an order of discharge releases the bankrupt from all claims provable in bankruptcy.

R.S., 1985, c. B-3, s. 178; R.S., 1985, c. 3 (2nd Supp.), s. 28; 1992, c. 27, s. 64; 1997, c. 12, s. 105; 1998, c. 21, s. 103; 2000, c. 12, s. 18; 2001, c. 4, s. 32; 2004, c. 25, s. 83; 2005, c. 47, s. 107; 2007, c. 36, s. 54; 2014, c. 20, s. 484.

Contempt for failure to comply with Court Order

Rule 60.11 of the Rules of Civil Procedure provides that a contempt order to enforce an order requiring a person to do an act (other than the payment of money) or to abstain from doing an act, may be obtained on motion to a judge in the proceeding in which the order to be enforced was made.

A number of steps are usually required to obtain a contempt order. The first is that the debtor must be subject to an order requiring a person to do an act or abstain from doing an act (i.e. not simply an order requiring the debtor to pay money).

For example, the Rules of Civil Procedure require a debtor to attend at examinations in aid of execution and bring to the examination ” all documents and things in his or her possession, control or power that are not privileged and that the notice of examination or summons to witness requires the person to bring.” A debtor may fail to comply with these obligations, including by failing to attend at an examination in aid of execution, failing to bring the documents listed in the notice of examination or failing to answer proper questions. If the debtor fails to comply with these obligations, the creditor may seek an order compelling the debtor to comply.

Once an order has been made compelling the debtor to, for example, attend at the examination in aid of execution, Rule 60.11 is potentially engaged; the debtor has been ordered “to do an act other than the payment of money”.

If the debtor fails to comply with the order, then the creditor may then bring a motion seeking a contempt order.

The Court may impose a variety of sentences on a debtor found to be in contempt of court, including fines, house arrest or, most severely, imprisonment. Among other goals, the contempt order is intended to coerce the debtor into complying with the enforcement procedures.

Contempt for concealment or disposition of property to defeat or defraud

Rule 60.18(5) is another basis for a contempt order. That rule states “Where it appears from [an examination in aid of execution] that a debtor has concealed or made away with property to defeat or defraud creditors, a judge may make a contempt order against the debtor.”

For example, if a debtor fails to disclose assets at an examination in aid of execution, and subsequently transfers the property to avoid paying the judgment, Rule 60.18(5) will be engaged. If the creditor discovers the transfer of assets, the creditor can seek a contempt order under Rule 60.18(5). Again, the Court may impose a variety of sentences on a debtor found to be in contempt of court under Rule 60.18(5), including fines, house arrest or imprisonment. The contempt order serves to both punish the debtor for attempting to defeat or defraud creditors, and to coerce the debtor into complying with future enforcement procedures.

The lawyers at Gilbertson Davis LLP have experience with enforcement of judgements and with seeking (and obtaining) civil contempt orders.

Our lawyers will consider whether the circumstances of your case fall within the following Ontario statutory provisions: 

Absconding Debtors Act, R.S.O. 1990, c. A.2

Under this Act the property of absconding debtor may be seized and taken by an order of attachment for the satisfaction of the person’s debts.

Assignments and Preferences Act, R.S.O. 1990, c. A.33

Provisions of this Act include statutory authority:

• to void, as against the creditors of the person a consent judgment given by a person to those creditors, being at the time in insolvent circumstances or unable to pay his, her or its debts in full or knowing himself, herself or itself to be on the eve of insolvency, voluntarily or by collusion with a creditor with intent thereby to defeat, hinder, delay or prejudice creditors wholly or in part, or to give one or more creditors a preference over other creditors or over any one or more of them;
• to void, as against the creditor or creditors injured, delayed or prejudiced every gift, conveyance, assignment or transfer, delivery over or payment of goods, chattels or effects, or of bills, bonds, notes or securities, or of shares, dividends, premiums or bonus in any bank, company or corporation, or of any other property, real or personal, made by a person when insolvent or unable to pay the person’s debts in full or when the person knows that he, she or it is on the eve of insolvency: •with intent to defeat, hinder, delay or prejudice creditors, or any one or more of them; or
• with the intent to give a creditor an unjust preference over other creditors or over any one or more of them; and
• to follow the proceeds of property fraudulently transferred in the above circumstances

Fraudulent Conveyances Act, R.S.O. 1990, c. F.29

Provisions of this Act include statutory authority to void, as against such persons and their assigns, every conveyance of real property or personal property and every bond, suit, judgment and execution heretofore or hereafter made with intent to defeat, hinder, delay or defraud creditors or others of their just and lawful actions, suits, debts, accounts, damages, penalties or forfeitures.

The court shall give a judgment enforcing an award made in Ontario under the Arbitration Act, 1991, S.O. 1991, c. 17 (but not Family Arbitration Awards) unless, the thirty-day period for commencing an appeal or an application to set the award aside has not yet elapsed; there is a pending appeal, application to set the award aside or application for a declaration of invalidity; or the award has been set aside or the arbitration is the subject of a declaration of invalidity.

Canada acceded to the United Nations Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards in 1986 (the “UNCITRAL Model Law”) declaring that it would apply the Convention only to differences arising out of legal relationships, whether contractual or not, that were considered commercial under the laws of Canada, except in the case of the Province of Quebec where the law did not provide for such limitation.

In Ontario, if the International Commercial Arbitration Act, R.S.O. 1990, c. I.9 applies, then it provides that the UNCITRAL Model Law (and the New York Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards as is contained in the UNCITRAL Model Law) is the law of Ontario.  Article 35 of the UNCITRAL Model Law requires the recognition and enforcement of the award, subject to the exceptions described in Article 36.  We may also, if necessary, consider the applicability of the New York Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards.