In its 2010 decision in Telezone, the Supreme Court of Canada took a relatively relaxed approach to private law actions against the federal government in provincial court. The difficulty is that in some of these cases a court will have to adjudicate on the lawfulness — as a public law matter — of actions or […] Read more

If you walk through the city centre streets of Montreal, you could well be walking along any street in North America, such is the predominance of big-name brands. This has long been a bone of contention for Quebeckers. Protest marches are not uncommon. Symbolically, the issue is of great importance, all the more so given […] Read more

A funny thing happened at the Tribunal Administratif du Québec recently. A hearing was conducted into the suspension of an individual’s driver’s licence by videoconference. One of the administrative judges was present at the hearing; the other joined from a remote location. When the SAAQ — the administrative agency that controls drivers’ licences — sought […] Read more

A helpful overview from this month’s issue of L’actualité. I note that the budget is around the $15m mark. So far, it seems like money well spent. Quite a contrast from the Irish corruption inquiries, where the Mahon Tribunal alone is projected to cost €300m! Read more

We know that administrative tribunals have plenty of scope to design their own procedures, which need not resemble those of a regular court. But there are limits, as the Québec Court of Appeal recently explained in a case involving a real estate agent who represented himself — unsuccessfully — at a disciplinary hearing.In Ménard c. […] Read more

That is the message of Cass Sunstein’s contribution to a New York Review of Books symposium on the upcoming U.S. Presidential election. Sunstein headed up OIRA for three years under President Obama.An extract: Of course the law imposes constraints; judges cannot strike rules down simply because they dislike them. But there is no question that […] Read more

A partial answer from the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal: yes.In McIntyre v. Nova Scotia (Community Services), 2012 NSCA 106, the applicant’s spouse had received a lump sum pension benefit, which meant that she had received an “overpayment” of benefits. There was no doubt that there had been an “overpayment” within the meaning of the […] Read more

In passing in its otherwise unremarkable decision in Pastore v. Aviva Canada Inc., 2012 ONCA 642, the Ontario Court of Appeal had something interesting to say about reasonableness. Feldman J.A. (with whom Rosenberg J.A. and Swinton J. agreed) commented as follows: [59]      Again, applying the Dunsmuir test for reasonableness, the delegate engaged in a […] Read more

My colleague Stéphane Beaulac raises a question that has not (it seems) had any consideration: can Omar Khadr, now back in Canada, apply for habeas corpus? Khadr can apply for a conditional release next year, but perhaps he will not have to wait that long.Khadr can almost certainly apply for the Great Writ. The leading […] Read more

At first blush, the result in North End Community Health Association v. Halifax (Regional Municipality), 2012 NSSC 330 is striking. A municipality’s decision to sell an old school to a property developer was held to be unlawful because it breached a duty of fairness to local non-profit organizations and because it was sold at less […] Read more