Robert Land Academy: Toronto takes the claims process, and a December 10 date

Robert Land Academy took its first students in 1978, on a property at 6726 and 6727 South Chippawa Road in the Township of West Lincoln, and ran there as an all-boys, military-style boarding school until June 2025. More than 3,000 students attended in those forty-seven years, per the First Report of the Trustee, Nov. 25, 2025, paras. 5, 8. Its last academic year ended on June 20, 2025, per the Trustee's Report to Creditors on Preliminary Administration, July 16, 2025, p. 2. A week later, on June 27, the school made an assignment in bankruptcy under s. 49 of the BIA, with Deloitte Restructuring Inc. as trustee, per the Certificate of Appointment, June 27, 2025.

The campus has since been sold, and what remains to be settled is the claims. On September 15, 2026, Justice Kimmel of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice (Commercial List) signed an order moving the bankruptcy, Court File No. BK-26-03241463-0032, Estate No. 32-3241463, from the courthouse at 45 Main Street East in Hamilton to 330 University Avenue in Toronto, and in an endorsement released September 19 fixed a full-day hearing for December 10 on how those claims will be decided, per the Order (Transfer to the Commercial List), Sept. 15, 2026, para. 1 and the Endorsement of Justice Kimmel, Sept. 19, 2026, paras. 2, 9.

A school that could not insure its next year

The school's account of its failure, as the trustee relays it, begins with money: rising operating costs, the lasting effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and a significant drop in international students produced years of losses and a shortage of cash. Beside those, since at least 2011, former students and parents of former students had brought more than eighty lawsuits alleging mental, physical and sexual abuse. Based on the school's 2024 audited financial statements, the trustee put the total claimed at no less than $135 million in July 2025, and recorded that the claims "remain contingent and unproven in a court of law," per the Trustee's Report to Creditors on Preliminary Administration, July 16, 2025, p. 1.

The timing was set by an insurance broker. The school was told that when its policies expired on June 30, 2025 it was very unlikely either to renew them or to find another insurer willing to write the coverage it needed to keep operating, and the board brought the filing forward, per the Trustee's Report to Creditors on Preliminary Administration, July 16, 2025, p. 2. The First Report states the conclusion in one line: the anticipated costs of defending the claims, together with the growing difficulty of securing adequate insurance, "rendered it impracticable for RLA to continue operations as a going concern," per the First Report of the Trustee, Nov. 25, 2025, para. 11.

Two months before the filing, on April 25, 2025, AppGear Mortgage Investment Limited Partnership had lent the school $3.2 million against a mortgage on the property and a general security agreement. The trustee describes the loan's purposes: to finish the 2024–25 academic year so that the last class of students "were treated in a fair and empathetic manner," to settle employees' statutory entitlements, and to pay for the administrative work of an orderly closure, per the First Report of the Trustee, Nov. 25, 2025, paras. 21–23.

The statement of affairs, sworn by a director on the day of the bankruptcy, lists assets at a book value of $4,743,344.87 against liabilities of $138,270,324.10. Of the liabilities, $135 million is the contingent litigation line; ordinary unsecured creditors — former employees, trade suppliers and some parents of former students — account for $1,699,182.44, and the secured figure of $1,571,141.66 is capped at the book value of the real property rather than at what AppGear was owed, per the Statement of Affairs, June 27, 2025, p. 5 and the Trustee's Report to Creditors on Preliminary Administration, July 16, 2025, pp. 2, 4. The school employed about sixteen people when it closed. The trustee terminated them all on the day of the bankruptcy and engaged fourteen back, at substantially the same base wages, to secure the site, catalogue records and send student academic files to the Ministry of Education; five were still working at the property in November, per the First Report of the Trustee, Nov. 25, 2025, paras. 17–20.

The campus, sold

The campus and about $2.3 million in bank deposits were the estate's main assets, per the Trustee's Report to Creditors on Preliminary Administration, July 16, 2025, p. 2. Avison Young had been retained before the bankruptcy and began marketing the property on May 21, 2025; the trustee assumed the listing in July and, on the broker's advice, set no bid deadline, only a date — September 29 — from which offers would be considered. Roughly 1,700 parties received the teaser, nine signed non-disclosure agreements, and seven made fifteen site tours between them, per the First Report of the Trustee, Nov. 25, 2025, paras. 33–42.

True Remainders Ltd. offered on October 2 and improved its offer on October 7; the trustee signed the agreement on October 15 and, at the buyer's request, accepted its assignment on October 23 to the Cantaro Institute. The buyer took the land, buildings, fixtures and equipment "as is, where is" and assumed none of the school's liabilities. Student files, personnel files and every record of personal information were carved out of the sale and stayed with the trustee, per the First Report of the Trustee, Nov. 25, 2025, paras. 43–50.

On November 25, 2025, AppGear appointed Deloitte as private receiver to complete the sale, and the trustee reported that on closing the private receiver would direct it to pay AppGear in full, the debt standing at about $3,348,000 by December 1. Because of the "multiplicity of contingent claims," and because the trustee expected equity to remain in the estate after the secured creditor was paid, it chose to ask the court for directions and approval, per the First Report of the Trustee, Nov. 25, 2025, paras. 24, 28–29, 51. Justice W.D. Black granted the approval and vesting order on December 3, 2025. He found the Soundair factors met and the price "appropriate and provident," and sealed the sale process summary, the offer summary and the unredacted agreement; he recorded that no one opposed the sale after notice to all known creditors and to counsel for the alleged victims, per the Endorsement of Justice Black, Dec. 5, 2025, paras. 10–14. The price is in the sealed appendices. The trustee certified closing at 3:25 p.m. on December 22, 2025, per the Trustee's Certificate, Dec. 22, 2025, para. 4.