Court upholds penalties for a City Councillor who sexually harassed a colleague

17. August 2021 0
Administrative law – Decisions reviewed – Municipal Council – Integrity Commissioner – Judicial review application – Disclosure – Jurisdiction – Compliance with legislation – Procedural requirements and fairness – Standard of review – Reasonableness – Professional governance and discipline – Professional misconduct / conduct unbecoming – Code of conduct – Municipalities – Discipline of officials ...

The plaintiff, a Board member of the BCMA, distributed private information from Board meetings to non-Board members. At a subsequent Board meeting, allegations were made against the plaintiff regarding her alleged breach of confidentiality provisions in the Code of Conduct and the matter was passed onto a Code of Conduct committee for investigation. The president of the BCMA then sent a letter out to all members notifying them of the investigation into the alleged breach of the Code. The plaintiff sued the BCMA for defamation on the basis of this letter and other communications. The trial judge and Court of Appeal agreed that the letter was defamatory, but that it was made on an occasion of qualified privilege. The Board had a duty to inform the membership of such an issue.

24. June 2014 0
Administrative law – Decisions of administrative tribunals – College of Physicians and Surgeons – Physicians and Surgeons – Code of conduct – Defamation – Judicial review – Disclosure – Qualified privilege Wang v. British Columbia Medical Assn., [2014] B.C.J. No. 833, 2014 BCCA 162, British Columbia Court of Appeal, April 30, 2014, I.T. Donald, M.V. ...

The Divisional Court of Ontario permitted an application for judicial review by a student who had been expelled by the headmaster of a private school for smoking marijuana. The Court of Appeal held that such a decision was not within the jurisdiction of the court to review for two reasons: one, the nexus between the school’s enabling Act and the expulsion decision was not specific enough to make the decision an exercise of statutory power; and two, even if there was a nexus, the decision could not be reviewed by public law or subject to a public law remedy because the decision maker was a private school created by private statute, and its disciplinary decisions are regulated by contracts between the school and the students’ parents.

28. January 2014 0
Administrative law – Decisions of administrative tribunals – School boards – Powers and duties – Statutory provisions – Schools – Students – Code of conduct – Expulsion of students – Judicial review – Jurisdiction – Compliance with legislation Setia v. Appleby College, [2013] O.J. No. 5736, 2013 ONCA 753, Ontario Court of Appeal, December 13, ...