Slattery (Trustee of) v. Slattery, 93 DTC 5443, [1993] 3 SCR 430, [1993] 2 CTC 243 -- summary under Subsection 241(3)

A trustee in bankruptcy of a taxpayer was permitted to introduce testimony of two Revenue Canada officials in proceedings instituted in the New Brunswick Court of Queen's Bench for a declaration that certain assets registered in the name of the taxpayer's wife were held in trust for the taxpayer's estate. After noting (at p. 5447) that the phrase "relating to" in s. 241(3) had the same wide scope as "in respect of," Iacobucci, J. found that the proceedings related to the enforcement of the Act because their ultimate purpose was the payment of taxes owed to Revenue Canada, which was a preferred beneficiary of the estate. In addition, a contrary conclusion would result in the absurdity that confidential information obtained by Revenue Canada could not be disclosed in proceedings initiated by the trustee in bankruptcy, whereas if the trustee in bankruptcy refused to act and Revenue Canada then took the same proceedings under s. 38(1) of the Bankruptcy Act, such information could arguably be disclosed. Finally, as a policy matter, there was no valid reason why the Minister should be inhibited from recourse to the bankruptcy process, as opposed to being restricted to the administrative remedies set out in Part XV of the Act, such as that contained in s. 160.