In Highwood Congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses (Judicial Committee) v. Wall, 2018 SCC 26, the Supreme Court of Canada helpfully clarified that in order for a decision to be subject to judicial review, it must be a public decision by a state actor and, in so doing, held that a disfellowship decision by the Judicial Committee of the Highwood Congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses was not subject to judicial review.

The Ontario Divisional Court in Trost v Conservative Party of Canada, 2018 ONSC 2733, provided another welcome clarification on what can be subject to judicial review when it held that a political party is not subject to judicial review as it is not a state actor, and in so doing refused to follow an earlier decision of the court which had judicially reviewed a decision of the New Democratic Party.

In Girouard v Canada (Attorney General), 2018 FC 865, Justice Noël of the Federal Court determined that a recommendation by the Canadian Judicial Council for the removal of a judge is subject to judicial review.

Edward Béchard-Torres, in his recent article Repudiating the Supreme Court on the Standard of Review, summarizes how a decision of the Alberta Court of Appeal has questioned the Supreme Court of Canada’s jurisprudence concerning the standard of review which must be applied to a given administrative decision, highlighting how the standard of review for administrative matters continues to be a moving target and the subject of much debate.

In Best v Canada (Attorney General), 2017 FC 1145, the Federal Court held that an administrative body, the Canadian Judicial Council, was entitled to sub-delegate to its executive director the authority to summarily dismiss complaints through an early screening process, and that its decision to summarily dismiss a complaint was reasonable.

The Ontario Court of Appeal, in its recent decision in E.T. v Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board, 2017 ONCA 893

When can a hearing which has commenced be reassigned to a new decision-maker or a decision-maker substituted to render a final decision? Several recent decisions have attempted to wrestle with these thorny issues.

Each year one wonders whether the CBA Admin Law, Labour & Employment Law Conference will meet expectations created by the great conference the previous year. Without a doubt the 2017 Conference, held in Ottawa in November, met – even exceeded – them.

Much ink has been spilled over the significance of the principle of cooperative federalism, starting with whether it is even a recognized doctrine that can be relied upon to adjudicate disputes over the division of legislative powers established by the Constitution Act, 1867.

The Supreme Court of Canada in India v Badesha, has confirmed that the standard of review of reasonableness will apply to a review of a Minister's extradition decision. With that decision, an extradition order against two Canadian citizens accused of arranging an honour killing in India was reinstated.