With Justice Stratas from the Federal Court of Appeal, I will be presenting the Ontario Bar Association’s annual judicial review update next week (October 14). 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

One of my favourite topics for dinner parties — which may be why I receive so few dinner party invitations — is the distinction between mandatory and directory considerations. Difficulties arise because while legislation often stipulates that certain formal and procedural requirements must be observed before an administrative decision is arrived at, it rarely states […] Read more