The pith and substance of The Unconscionable Transactions Relief Act (Ontario), which permitted a court to re-open a money-lending transaction where it found that "the cost of the loan is excessive and that the transaction is harsh and unconscionable", was not concerned with interest, and the statute accordingly was not ultra vires.
With respect to the definition of "cost of the loan", which included "discount, subscription, premium, dues, bonus, commission, brokerage fees and charges," Judson J., after quoting a statement in Halsbury's that "interest accrues de die in diem even if payable only at intervals, and is, therefore, apportionable in point of time between persons entitled in succession to the principal," stated (at p. 575):
"The day-to-day accrual of interest seems to me to be an essential characteristic. All the other items mentioned in The Unconscionable Transactions Relief Act except discount lack this characteristic. They are not interest. In most of these unconscionable schemes of lending the vice is the bonus."