This case was heard in the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal.

During a field exercise, a Canadian Armed Forces squadron caused a harmful alteration to a fish habitat in Wash Brook, Cape Breton County. In doing so, it violated s. 35(1) of the federal Fisheries Act. When the Department of Fisheries and Oceans ("DFO") initiated legal proceedings against the Department of National Defence ("DND"), the Provincial Court of Nova Scotia held that Her Majesty the Queen (as represented by the DND) could not be sued in this way. The DFO appealed to the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal, which set aside the lower court’s decision and ordered a full trial.