I gave a talk today at the International Institute of of Communications (Canadian Chapter) annual conference. Here are my remarks: Is your relationship with your spouse genuine? It is difficult to imagine a more human question and hard to think of a response that would be anything other than human. But, routinely, Canadian immigration decisions […] Read more

With Justice Stratas from the Federal Court of Appeal, I will be presenting the Ontario Bar Association’s annual judicial review update next month (November 12). Register here. The bill of fare is below! Foundations of Judicial Review & Adequate Alternative Remedies Democracy Watch v. Canada (Attorney General), 2026 SCC 28 (noted here) Hogan v. Canada […] Read more

In previous posts here and here, I have discussed the functus officio principle and statutory reconsideration authority. Here I discuss a recent case with a mix of both Now consider one further difficulty. Where an administrative decision-maker has reconsidered (Decision 2) its original decision (Decision 1), and an applicant seeks judicial review, what should the […] Read more

Here is the second part of my series on functus officio and reconsideration (see also here) Another layer of complexity is added by the fact that many statutes explicitly provide for reconsideration, often using different language, and sometimes giving the reconsideration authority to a member or panel that did not sit on the initial application. […] Read more