John Foster
Associate
John's Contact Details
jfoster@djacounsel.comDirect: (778) 504-8757Direct: (778) 504-8757 LinkedIn download v-card Recommend John
John's Assistant
Biography
John Foster is a civil litigator and senior associate at Dennis Dawson James Aitken LLP. John’s practice focuses on commercial transactions, corporate disputes and wills and estates litigation.
John represents clients in real estate disputes (commercial and residential), shareholder disputes, corporate control, director/officer liability, breach of contract, fraud, negligence, professional liability, and fiduciary duties. John’s clients include out-of-country persons and corporations, and he is experienced in foreign estate proceedings and foreign judgment proceedings. A significant portion of John’s practice is as appeal counsel.
John regularly appears in all levels of court in B.C., as well as appearing in the Federal Court and the Federal Court of Appeal. He also routinely resolves disputes outside of court by way of mediation and arbitration.
John’s cases are highlighted in Thomson Reuters (Westlaw) Law Reports as important cases in business law. His cases and court materials are also featured by Thomson Reuters (Westlaw) as precedents for Canadian litigators.
John is an active member of the legal community as:
- executive of the Civil Litigation Section of the Canadian Bar Association;
- moot judge for law students at the Peter A. Allard School of Law; and
- mentor in the Canadian Bar Association’s mentorship program.
Publications
Education
- J.D., University of Calgary, 2020
- B.A. (Honours with Distinction), Anthropology, University of Victoria, 2014
Associations
- Member, Law Society of British Columbia
- Member, Canadian Bar Association, B.C. Branch
- Executive, Canadian Bar Association, B.C. Branch, Civil Litigation Section
- Member, Vancouver Bar Association
- Member, The Advocates’ Society
Bar Admissions
- British Columbia, 2021
Notable Cases
Barretto Estate (Re), 2025 BCSC 239
John Foster successfully revoked a competing grant of administration over an intestate Philippine estate in the context of complex, multijurisdictional corporate and estate litigation proceedings.
Shanks v Salt River First Nation #196, 2025 FCA 159
John Foster successfully persuaded the Federal Court of Appeal, in the first appellate level decision to consider the issue of increased cost awards in First Nation governance cases, to set aside the Federal Court’s discretionary cost award and increase his client’s entitlement to costs from the standard tariff scale to 50% of the client’s actual costs spent plus disbursements.
Salt River First Nation #195 v Shanks, 2025 FCA 158
John Foster, alongside Ian Knapp of MacKenzie Fujisawa LLP, successfully defended their earlier win at the Federal Court. That previously successful judicial review quashed a band council resolution that disentitled certain band members from receiving per capita distributions from a settlement fund held in trust by the First Nation under a settlement with the Canadian government.
Sidhu v Sidhu, 2025 BCCA 263
John Foster and Craig Dennis, K.C. successfully defended a trial judge’s findings that there was no joint family venture and no unjust enrichment of the divorcing parties’ parents in the context of complex, multi-party proceedings concerning the division, valuation and use of property in a South Asian family farming operation.
Su v Hougen Co. Ltd., 2025 BCCA 164
John Foster and Craig Dennis, K.C. successfully set aside a B.C. Supreme Court order, requiring their client to pay special costs in the context of commencing a derivative lawsuit against a director and related parties.
Norseyl Properties Ltd. v Mirage Trading Corporation, 2024 BCSC 1225
John Foster successfully struck the defendant’s third-party claim in a lawsuit concerning disputed ownership of a significant real estate development.
Canada Life Assurance Company v Siddoo A.K. Investments Ltd., 2024 BCSC 1057
John Foster successfully defended a document production application brought against a corporate lessee in a complex commercial leasing dispute by persuading the B.C. Supreme Court that documents that would permit the plaintiff to conduct a financial analysis of the corporate defendant’s operation of a commercial building are not relevant to a contractual frustration defence.
Derencinovic v 7 West Homes Ltd., 2024 BCSC 2032
John Foster and Owen James, at the start of a 3 month trial of two actions being tried together and over the protests of the plaintiffs, secured the court’s permission to amend their clients’ response to civil claim to broaden the scope of an illegality defence in one action, and to plead an illegality defence in the other action.
Loginradius Inc. v Gupta, 2024 BCSC 1256
John Foster and Craig Dennis, K.C., secured an interim interlocutory injunction restraining an individual defendant from interfering with their client’s use and access to a large number of domain names.
Mitchell v Manson, 2024 BCCA 142
John Foster, alongside Chris Watson of MacKenzie Fujisawa LLP, successfully defended their earlier win at the British Columbia Supreme Court, which found that a waiver of liability for mountain guiding services did not bar their client’s action for injuries suffered while on a mountain climbing expedition.
Ratanshi v Kalra, 2024 BCSC 283
John Foster and Owen James successfully secured a Mareva injunction over individual and corporate defendants on the basis of an oral trust agreement concerning the plaintiffs’ ownership interest in the corporate defendant.
Singh v Minhas, 2023 BCCA 7
John Foster, acting alongside Quang Duong of MacKenzie Fujisawa LLP, successfully defended their earlier win at the British Columbia Supreme Court, which found no liability on the part of a notary public in connection with a real estate transaction.
Manson v Mitchell, 2023 BCSC 723
John Foster, alongside Chris Watson of MacKenzie Fujisawa LLP, successfully proved at summary trial that an Association of Canadian Mountain Guides’ liability waiver for mountain guiding services did not bar their client’s lawsuit for injuries suffered while on a mountain climbing expedition.
Richard Shanks v Salt River First Nation #195, 2023 FC 690
John Foster, alongside Ian Knapp of MacKenzie Fujisawa LLP, quashed a band council resolution that disentitled certain band members from receiving per capita distributions from a settlement fund held in trust by the First Nation under a settlement with the Canadian government.
Shanghai Zhong Jia Xing Hua Chuang Ye Investment LLP v Bai, 2022 BCSC 935
John Foster, acting alongside Quang Duong of MacKenzie Fujisawa LLP, successfully permanently stayed the majority of the plaintiffs’ claims against the defendants on the grounds that China was the more appropriate forum for the claims to be heard.