In R. v. Sullivan, 2020 ONCA 333, the Ontario Court of Appeal considered the effect of declarations of unconstitutionality. This is a difficult area, with stare decisis and res judicata complicating the analysis but I think the Court of Appeal’s analysis is vitiated by a misconception as to the nature of declaratory relief. The basic […] Read more

I have posted the text of my Hugh Ketcheson QC Memorial Lecture, “Unresolved Issues after Vavilov“, to SSRN: In its decision in Canada (Citizenship and Immigration) v Vavilov the Supreme Court of Canada fundamentally altered Canadian administrative law. For the most part, the Court’s analysis was comprehensible and comprehensive. But on a number of key […] Read more

This week, I am giving the Hugh Ketcheson Memorial Lecture in Saskatchewan (remotely) on the topic of “Unresolved Issues After Vavilov” (see my earlier collection of posts). The last part is on the constitutional foundations of Vavilov. Here is a draft: In Dunsmuir v New Brunswick, Bastarache and LeBel JJ framed their rearticulation of the […] Read more

The Immigration and Refugee Board is Canada’s largest administrative tribunal. It makes tens of thousands of determinations each year in refugee and immigration matters where the stakes are as high as they can be in administrative adjudication. Ensuring consistent decision-making in a high-volume tribunal, with members spread out across the country, is a significant challenge. […] Read more

COVID-19 cases are on the rise in Ontario. The Premier will give a press conference this afternoon. Portentously, it is Friday the 13th. At issue is the province’s recently published plan for the tightening and loosening of restrictions on economic activity. Ontario’s COVID hotspots — Toronto, Peel and Ottawa — had been operating under increased […] Read more

I have posted “Vavilov at One” to SSRN. It is a comprehensive review of the first year of the roll-out of the framework established in Canada (Citizenship and Immigration) v Vavilov, 2019 SCC 65. Here is the abstract: A year ago, in Canada (Citizenship and Immigration) v Vavilov, the Supreme Court of Canada fundamentally reshaped […] Read more

Before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, I was looking forward to hosting some of the country’s leading scholars and practitioners on administrative law for a day-long conference picking apart the implications of Vavilov for various areas of administrative decision-making. The event has been rescheduled for December 18. Please save the date! The title of the conference […] Read more

I am an associate professor at the Faculty of Law, University of Ottawa, where I hold the University Research Chair in Administrative Law & Governance. Educated in Ireland, the United States and the United Kingdom (where I also taught administrative law) before settling in Canada, I have developed a comparative perspective on judicial review of […] Read more

Here is the running order for this year’s Judicial Review Update (me and Justice Stratas of the Federal Court of Appeal). The event is online only. Sign up here. Vavilov, One Year On Statutory Appeals The Classification Game Yee v Chartered Professional Accountants of Alberta, 2020 ABCA 98 Planet Energy (Ontario) Corp. v Ontario Energy […] Read more