{"id":360593,"date":"2026-07-31T18:54:00","date_gmt":"2026-07-31T18:54:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/business\/legal\/canada-high-court-strikes-down-law-barring-judicial-review-on-legal-and-factual-errors-jurist\/"},"modified":"2026-07-31T18:54:00","modified_gmt":"2026-07-31T18:54:00","slug":"canada-high-court-strikes-down-law-barring-judicial-review-on-legal-and-factual-errors-jurist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=360593","title":{"rendered":"Canada high court strikes down law barring judicial review on legal and factual errors &#8211; JURIST"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>The Supreme Court of Canada on Thursday <a href=\"https:\/\/decisions.scc-csc.ca\/scc-csc\/scc-csc\/en\/item\/21588\/index.do\">ruled<\/a> unanimously that a partial privative clause cannot bar judicial review on questions of fact and law. It held that judicial review on such questions is the courts\u2019 \u201ccore supervisory jurisdiction\u201d guaranteed by the Constitution.<\/p>\n<p>Chief Justice Richard Wagner, writing for the bench, held that Canada\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/laws-lois.justice.gc.ca\/eng\/const\/page-3.html#h-27\">Constitution Act, 1867<\/a> guarantees the courts\u2019 ability to review the legality of administrative decisions. He concluded that the legislature acts beyond its authority when it purports to limit courts\u2019 constitutional power to perform a legality review. This is because, according to Wagner, any irrational or unreasonable exercise of public power is unlawful; the Constitution empowers courts to ensure that the government exercises its public power lawfully and within limits.<\/p>\n<p>Notably, Wagner recognized the legislature\u2019s power to prescribe procedures for judicial review. For instance, the legislature can regulate the timelines, fora or standards of judicial review. This power, however, cannot cut into the core supervisory jurisdiction of superior courts.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.circlebarristers.com\/sujit-choudhry\">Sujit Choudhry<\/a>, counsel for Democracy Watch, <a href=\"https:\/\/democracywatch.ca\/dwatch-wins-unanimous-supreme-court-ruling-removing-statutory-barriers-to-challenging-decisions-of-the-federal-ethics-commissioner-and-similar-tribunals-across-canada\/\">welcomed<\/a> the decision:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>In an era where executives around the world have sought to assert broad and unlimited powers that are not reviewable by the courts, the Supreme Court of Canada has resoundingly proclaimed that will not occur in Canada. In clear and unequivocal terms, the Supreme Court has affirmed legal powers, by definition, are limited powers, and that it is the constitutional duty of the provincial superior courts and the federal courts to rule on the legality of executive power.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>The case concerns Section 66 of the federal <a href=\"https:\/\/laws-lois.justice.gc.ca\/eng\/acts\/c-36.65\/page-5.html#docCont\">Conflict of Interest Act<\/a>. Known as a partial privative clause, the provision bars the federal court from reviewing the ethics commissioner\u2019s decisions on the grounds of alleged factual or legal errors. Courts can still review commission decisions if there are alleged jurisdictional errors, procedural errors, or perjured evidence. Thursday\u2019s ruling renders the section of no force and effect.<\/p>\n<p>In May 2021, former ethics commissioner Mario Dion <a href=\"https:\/\/publications.gc.ca\/collections\/collection_2026\/ccie-ciec\/ET3-30-2021-eng.pdf\">cleared<\/a> former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of conflict of interest violations related to his approval of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.we.org\/en-CA\/\">WE Charity<\/a> as the administrator of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pm.gc.ca\/en\/news\/backgrounders\/2020\/06\/25\/canada-student-service-grant\">Canada Student Service Grant<\/a>. It was a temporary program that encouraged students to participate in service activities and support their communities during the COVID-19 pandemic. <a href=\"https:\/\/democracywatch.ca\/\">Democracy Watch<\/a>, a Canadian advocacy group, <a href=\"https:\/\/democracywatch.ca\/backgrounder-3\/\">argued<\/a> that Dion failed to consider the personal ties between Trudeau and the Kielburger brothers, who are two of WE Charity\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.we.org\/en-CA\/about-we\/our-founders\/\">co-founders<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The advocacy group lodged this judicial review to challenge the conclusion. The lower court threw out the case, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.canlii.org\/en\/ca\/fca\/doc\/2024\/2024fca158\/2024fca158.html?resultId=9326d3b4b50d46169b2a6ac5cd6c3281&amp;searchId=2024-12-03T10:42:14:550\/941a69b55687426985d331e226d6f07a\">holding<\/a> that the reporting obligation owed by the commissioner to Parliament\u2019s standing committee is an adequate alternative to judicial review. The apex court overturned this ruling.<\/p>\n<p>The Federal Court of Appeal can now review Dion\u2019s conclusion.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Supreme Court of Canada on Thursday ruled unanimously that a partial privative clause cannot bar judicial review on questions of fact and law. It held that judicial review on such questions is the courts\u2019 \u201ccore supervisory jurisdiction\u201d guaranteed by the Constitution. Chief Justice Richard Wagner, writing for the bench, held that Canada\u2019s Constitution Act, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":360594,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[97],"tags":[22710,5784,410,33494,20387,1521,13232,14816,12685,6036,3749,25325],"dealstore":[],"offerexpiration":[],"class_list":["post-360593","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-legal","tag-barring","tag-canada","tag-court","tag-errors","tag-factual","tag-high","tag-judicial","tag-jurist","tag-law","tag-legal","tag-review","tag-strikes"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Canada high court strikes down law barring judicial review on legal and factual errors - JURIST - Som2ny Network<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=360593\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Canada high court strikes down law barring judicial review on legal and factual errors - JURIST - Som2ny Network\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Supreme Court of Canada on Thursday ruled unanimously that a partial privative clause cannot bar judicial review on questions of fact and law. It held that judicial review on such questions is the courts\u2019 \u201ccore supervisory jurisdiction\u201d guaranteed by the Constitution. 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