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Employee Pension Rights And The False Promise Of Trust Law, Elizabeth Shilton
Employee Pension Rights And The False Promise Of Trust Law, Elizabeth Shilton
Dalhousie Law Journal
This article explores the jurisprudence of the Supreme Court of Canada on employment pension trusts. I argue that the Court's 1994 decision in Schmidt v. Air Products, which embraced trust law as a tool for resolving pension surplus ownership disputes, held out the promise that courts would use fiduciary principles to shape pension rights for employees and protect those rights against employer self-interest. That promise has failed to bear much fruit. Since Schmidt, the Court has moved away from a conception of trust law as a fetter on employer power towards a flexible conception in which employer trust obligations are …