An individual who managed a partnership for a fixed fee "through" a corporation of which he was the sole officer and shareholder would have been an officer of the partnership but for the interposition of his corporation - so that the corporation was found to be carrying on a personal services business (with a resulting loss of the small business deduction).
Before reaching this conclusion, Bédard J. noted that although it was "well established that a partner cannot be an employee in his own partnership" (given that the control of a partner in the partnership business is inconsistent with the subordinate character of the employment relationship) (para. 27), the same restriction did not apply here as "an 'office'...does not require the individual to be in the service of some other person" (para. 28).