This was an appeal from a decision of the Ontario Court General Division. The case concerned a fatal scuba diving accident in Lake Ontario. A chartered vessel was used to take the divers to the dive site but the vessel was otherwise not involved in the accident. The deceased died from a gas embolism. The issue in the case was whether the accident was governed by Canadian maritime law and the one year limitation period in the Canada Shipping Act or by the two year period in the Ontario Family Law Act. Both at the trial level and on appeal it was held that the case was not governed by Canadian maritime law and that the two year period in the Family Law Act applied. The Court of Appeal noted that "not every tortious activity engaged in on Canada’s waterways is subject to Canadian maritime law. Only if the activity sued about is sufficiently connected with navigation or shipping… will it fall to be resolved under Canadian maritime law."
It is noteworthy that the Court of Appeal said, in obiter dicta, that if the case was governed by the one year limitation period in the Canada Shipping Act, the Court would nevertheless have the inherent jurisdiction to extend the one year limitation period and would have done so in the absence of any prejudice to the Defendants. (Editor’s Note: Compare this to the decision of the British Columbia Supreme Court in Vogel v Sawbridge et.al.(April 3, 1996) No. 24638 Kelowna Registry (B.C.S.C.) where that Court refused to recognize any such inherent jurisdiction.)