On Thursday, the University of Alberta will host a conference marking the fifth anniversary of the Supreme Court of Canada’s decision in Canada (Minister of Citizenship and Immigration) v. Vavilov, 2019 SCC 65. Gerard Kennedy (Alberta) and Mark Mancini (TRU) were the brains of this operation; I carpet-bagged my way onto the organizing committee once […] Read more

Any observer of contemporary politics will tell you that winds of change are blowing across Canada. President Trump’s return to office in Washington DC has disrupted a stable trading relationship, prompting Canadian politicians provincially and federally to focus efforts on eliminating internal trade barriers and promoting large-scale economic development projects with a view to compensating […] Read more

This is an excerpt from my paper, “The Scope and Meaning of Reasonableness Review after Vavilov“ As is well known, Vavilov establishes that the presumptive standard of review for any administrative decision is reasonableness,[1] subject to two sets of exceptions, one based on the rule of law and the other based on institutional design. The […] Read more

This is an extract from my recent paper on bias (available here): Comments made by a decision-maker may give rise to a reasonable apprehension of bias. It is useful to contrast the statements at issue in two Canadian cases. On the one hand, in Newfoundland Telephone Co. v. Newfoundland (Board of Commissioners of Public Utilities),[1] […] Read more