Have Judicial Robes, Can Travel: Judges Can Sit In Other Provinces

Judges of the Superior Court of Ontario may sit and make decisions in courtrooms in other provinces when the Ontario court has jurisdiction over the parties and issues in the proceeding, the Ontario Superior Court held recently: Parsons v. The Canadian Red Cross Society, 2013 ONSC 3053. This decision clarifies that the court's inherent jurisdiction to control its own process includes the power to use its discretion in determining whether it is in the interest of justice to hold a hearing outside its home province.

This decision is important to class action practice, as it has become routine for courts in several provinces to hold joint hearings when class actions are proceeding in several provinces at once.

The issue of whether a judge from one province can sit and make decisions in the courtroom of another province arose as part of three concurrent class action proceedings brought against the Canadian Red Cross and other government entities by individuals who were infected with Hepatitis C by the Canadian blood supply. Class proceedings were brought in Ontario, British Columbia, and Quebec, with a judge from each province supervising the respective actions. A motion relating to a settlement agreement was to be heard by all three courts, and it was proposed that the most efficient way to hear the motion was to have the three supervisory judges sit together in one location, Edmonton. The Attorney General of Ontario ("AG Ontario")...