2024

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The Charter in Administrative Decision-Making: Defending the Duty to Take Charter Values (or Purposes) Into Account

On the evergreen topic of Charter values, I have a new paper on SSRN (forthcoming in a special edition of the Ottawa Law Review on language rights), entitled “The Charter in Administrative Decision-Making: Defending the Duty to Take Charter Values (or Purposes) into Account“: The Supreme Court of Canada recently reaffirmed that administrative decision-makers are […] Read more

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The Public/Private Divide in Canada: Khorsand v. Toronto Police Services Board, 2024 ONCA 597 and Nova Scotia Health Authority v. Finkle and West, 2024 NSCA 87

In its 2018 decision in Highwood Congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses (Judicial Committee) v. Wall, 2018 SCC 26, [2018] 1 SCR 750, the Supreme Court of Canada sought to clarify the approach to the scope of judicial review. Rowe J wrote, for a unanimous court, that “[j]udicial review is only available where there is an exercise […] Read more

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Has Reasonableness Review Become Even More Robust? Piché c. Entreprises Y. Bouchard & Fils inc., 2024 QCCA 1374

In a post earlier this year analyzing the Supreme Court of Canada’s recent administrative law decisions, I noted how it would be “necessary to read the next entries in the standard-of-review catalogue very carefully to see if the Court is sending a signal about the level of intensity of reasonableness review under the Vavilov framework”. […] Read more

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The Constitutional Foundations of Judicial Review (Again): Democracy Watch v. Canada, 2024 FCA 158

Regular readers will know that there are ongoing debates in Canada about the constitutional foundations of judicial review and, in particular, whether the Supreme Court’s decision in Canada (Minister of Citizenship and Immigration) v. Vavilov, 2019 SCC 65, [2019] 4 SCR 653 means there is a core, irreducible minimum of judicial oversight that includes review […] Read more

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Unchartered Territory: York Region District School Board v. Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario, 2024 SCC 22 and Dickson v. Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation, 2024 SCC 10

In two cases this year, the Supreme Court of Canada revisited the scope of application of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. In York Region District School Board v. Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario, 2024 SCC 22, the Court held that the Charter applies to Ontario school boards. And in Dickson v. Vuntut Gwitchin First […] Read more

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Discrimination and Regulation-Making: Procureur général du Québec c. Kanyinda, 2024 QCCA 144 and Lauzon-Foresterie (Fiducie) c. Municipalité de L’Ange-Gardien, 2024 QCCA 506

A few months ago I posted on a couple of recent appellate decisions on discriminatory bylaws (see here). My excellent doctoral student Paul-David Chouinard noted that the Quebec Court of Appeal has also weighed in on this issue twice recently, in Lauzon-Foresterie (Fiducie) c. Municipalité de L’Ange-Gardien, 2024 QCCA 506 and Procureur général du Québec […] Read more