In a recent decision of the Federal Court of Appeal, French, it dealt with a technical issue of whether an argument should be struck, as it was by the Tax Court judge, “on the basis that it was doomed to fail” or there was not “a glimmer of a legal basis”.  The Federal Court of Appeal concluded in this case that “it is not plain and obvious that the impugned plea cannot succeed and that the appeal should accordingly be allowed.”  It is a very high threshold for a party to have part of a pleading be struck and this did not meet that “no chance of success” line.   

Here is a link to the full decision: http://www.canlii.org/en/ca/fca/doc/2016/2016fca64/2016fca64.html