2019

In Spencer v. Canada (Attorney General), 2021 FC 361, the Federal Court dismissed a motion which had sought an injunction suspending the Federal Government’s COVID-19 hotel stopover policy.

New cases suggest Courts are still deferring to the government.

Up to now, the Courts have tended to defer to the government and have upheld the emergency legislation implemented in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

On an urgent application, the Ontario Divisional Court in Sprague v. Her Majesty the Queen in right of Ontario, 2020 ONSC 2335, found that a hospital’s policy limiting visitor access to certain “essential visitors” was not subject to judicial review and did not breach the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

In a decision with wide-ranging implications for the lobbying community and for administrative law generally, the Federal Court of Appeal ruled in Canada (Attorney General) v. Democracy Watch (2020 FCA 69) that the federal Lobbying Act does not create a duty for the lobbying commissioner to investigate complaints from members of the public.

In UAlberta Pro-Life v. Governors of the University of Alberta, 2020 ABCA 1, the Alberta Court of Appeal held that the University of Alberta was subject to s. 32 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms in relation to its regulation of freedom of expression by students on university grounds.

In People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, Inc. v. City of Toronto, 2020 ONSC 2356, the Ontario Divisional Court dismissed an application for judicial review of a media company’s decision to remove an animal advocacy group’s bus shelter advertisements targeted against Canada Goose and the city’s refusal to compel the reposting of the ads under its lease contract.

The Supreme Court of Canada’s December 2019 decision in Canada (Minister of Citizenship and Immigration) v Vavilov was a game-changer in Canadian administrative law. Decades of case law was synthesized – or overturned, depending on one’s point of view – as a new framework was promulgated for substantive review of administrative decisions.

With the recent denial of leave to appeal by the Supreme Court of Canada [2019] SCCA No 295, the Alberta Court of Appeal’s decision in Zoocheck Canada Inc. v. Alberta (Minister of Agriculture and Forestry), 2019 ABCA 208 has been confirmed. It upholds the decision of a chambers judge denying public interest standing to an advocacy group seeking judicial review of a decision by the Alberta Minister of Environment and Parks to renew a zoo permit.

In October 2019, just prior to a federal leaders’ election debate, the Federal Court granted an urgent injunction ordering the Leaders’ Debate Commission to permit two media journalists to attend and cover the federal leaders’ election debate. In True North Centre for Public Policy v. Canada (Leaders’ Debates Commission), 2019 FC 1424, the court subsequently released its reasons for granting this injunction.