Seven New Appeals Will Be Heard By The Supreme Court Of Canada

• Published date: 04 May 2020
• Author: Mr Andrew Little, Ranjan K. Agarwal and Ethan Schiff
• Subject Matter: Litigation, Mediation & Arbitration, Trials & Appeals & Compensation
• Law Firm: Bennett Jones LLP

Although the Supreme Court has suspended hearing appeals, the Court continues to issue judgments both on appeals and applications for leave to appeal. Hearings scheduled for March, April and May were adjourned on March 25, 2020, tentatively until sometime in June 2020. The Court has not yet set any hearing dates in June, and it is possible that a further adjournment of hearings will be directed.

Since January, the Court has granted leave to appeal in seven cases that may have significant implications for the business community.

• The application of Charter rights to municipal elections will be considered in City of Toronto v Ontario (2019 ONCA 732). Toronto at first succeeded in arguing that the province's decision to reduce the number of city council seats shortly prior to an election breached municipal voters' rights to effective representation and freedom of expression Ontario's Court of Appeal overturned the decision, with a narrow majority holding that the right to effective representation guaranteed in federal and provincial elections does not apply to municipal elections.
• The appeal in Northern Regional Health Authority v Linda Horrocks (2017 MBCA 98) engages workplace human rights issues. Here, the employer terminated the complainant's employment for allegedly breaching an agreement to abstain from alcohol. The complainant succeeded at the human rights tribunal, but the decision was set aside on judicial review on the grounds that the complaint should have been resolved by a labour arbitrator under a collective agreement. The Manitoba Court of Appeal allowed the appeal, holding that on a proper characterization of the complaint, the human rights tribunal had jurisdiction to decide it.
• The Court will consider the Canada Revenue Agency's priority in bankruptcy proceedings in Canada v Canada North Group Inc. (2019 ABCA 314), a case dealing with proceedings under the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act. In that case the Alberta Court of Appeal upheld the Queen's Bench judge's decision that a statutory deemed trust in favour of the CRA for unremitted source deductions ranked below a court-ordered super-priority security interest deemed necessary for restructuring.
• In MediaQMI Inc. v Kamel (2019 QCCA 814), the Court will consider the right to access sealed documents in another case. In this case, a media company brought a motion to end a sealing order to access exhibits in a separate matter, which was discontinued soon after. The respondents filed...