With Mark Mancini, I have prepared a report for the Macdonald-Laurier Institute on dismantling internal trade barriers within Canada, a project to which there is much rhetorical commitment but rather less in the way of concrete action. We explain how what should be done can be done: We Canadians like to think that we live […] Read more
Just when you thought you had seen every conceivable standard of review problem (and/or that Vavilov had solved them all), along comes Gannett v. Halifax Regional Centre for Education, 2026 NSCA 16. Here, the statute provides for a decision by the provincial Labour Board and then: The review of a decision of the Board shall be conducted […] Read more
As I have observed before, (with apologies to Kenneth Shepsle) administrative agencies are a “they”, not an “it”. Further evidence comes from West Whitby Landowners Group Inc. v. Elexicon Energy Inc., 2025 ONCA 821. Over the objection of the Ontario Energy Board, the Ontario Court of Appeal held that Board staff members could make binding […] Read more
In Canadian law, the protections of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms apply with relatively little force in areas of economic regulation. The following passage from R. v. Wholesale Travel Group Inc., [1991] 3 SCR 154 is representative of the courts’ concern that giving too expansive a scope to the Charter might be socially damaging: Regulatory legislation […] Read more
