Stay in your own lane: when asked to review a decision of an administrative tribunal, the Court ought to decline jurisdiction where there is another process available that is more appropriate to the adjudication of the claim

21. June 2022 0
Administrative law – Decisions reviewed – University Committees – Judicial review – Jurisdiction – Procedural requirements and fairness – Standard of review – Reasonableness – Correctness – Human rights complaints – Discrimination – Universities Michalski v. McMaster University, [2022] O.J. No. 2071, 2022 ONSC 2625, Ontario Superior Court of Justice, April 29, 2022, D.L. Corbett, ...

Saskatchewan Court of Appeal holds University of Saskatchewan Council was bound by their own internal regulations and failure to follow the regulations in this instance lead to a finding of a denial of procedural fairness

16. November 2021 0
Administrative law – Decisions reviewed – University Appeal Board – University Committees – Jurisdiction – Suspension – Plagiarism – Judicial review – Appeals – Procedural requirements and fairness – Universities – Student discipline Akpan v. University of Saskatchewan Council, [2021] S.J. No. 407, 2021 SKCA 129, Saskatchewan Court of Appeal, September 29, 2021, P.A. Whitmore, ...

That’s reasonable, right? The standard of review regarding questions of procedural fairness met by an administrative decision maker is not correctness, but rather whether the standard of fairness required by the common law has been met

21. September 2021 0
Administrative law – Decisions reviewed – University Committees – Judicial review – Procedural requirements and fairness – Standard of review – Reasonableness – Correctness – Remedies – Declaratory relief – Charter relief – Universities – Students – Policies Andres v. Governors of the University of Lethbridge, [2021] A.J. No. 960, 2021 ABQB 551, Alberta Court ...

Hear me out! Judicial Review of the Vice President of Northern Lakes College decision to not convene a Student Appeals Committee after the applicant was removed from his practicum program

17. March 2020 0
The applicant was a student in the Primary Care Paramedic Program. He was removed from the program by Alberta Health Services, which ran a portion of the practicum program. The applicant was subsequently removed from the academic program for failure to complete his academic requirements. He sought a hearing in front of the Student Appeal ...

Decisions of university official regarding student group’s space booking privileges held not to be subject to Charter scrutiny

21. June 2016 0
The vice president of student affairs at the University of Victoria suspended a pro-life student group’s space booking privileges for a year after they violated his instruction not to proceed with a demonstration on campus. The group petitioned for a declaration that the decision was in violation of section 2 of the Charter. The Chambers ...

A doctoral student (“Tapics”) had enrolled in Dalhousie’s University department of oceanography to complete a PhD thesis involving sea turtles. However, a year and a half later, her field supervisor left the University and took data essential to her sea turtle research. Tapics changed her topic to right whales, but her faculty supervisor subsequently withdrew and no replacement supervisor was found by the faculty of graduate studies. Tapics sued Dalhousie and, on appeal, succeeded in establishing that her claim regarding the sea turtle “debacle” was not barred as an abuse of process.

22. September 2015 0
Administrative law – Decisions of administrative tribunals – University Committees – Universities – Fairness – Students – Judicial review – Abuse of process – Jurisdiction of court Tapics v. Dalhousie University, [2015] N.S.J. No. 30, 2015 NSCA 72, Nova Scotia Court of Appeal, July 22, 2015, J.E. Fichaud, P. Bryson and J.E. Scanlan JJ.A. In ...

By enrolling in a university, students become subject to the institution’s discretion in resolving academic matters. Courts will only interfere in the core academic functions of universities in cases of “manifest unfairness”. Based on these principles, the Court denied an application on judicial review to set aside a decision of the Senate Appeals Committee of the University of Alberta, which upheld the Residency Program Committee’s requirement that a postgraduate medical student in cardiac surgery enter a six-month remediation period prior to entering her fourth year of residency. Given that the resident’s right to continue her profession and employment was not at stake, she had no right to call or cross-examine witnesses in the academic proceedings.

26. June 2012 0
Administrative law – Decisions of administrative tribunals – University Committees – Universities – Medical residents – Evaluation of residents – Physicians and Surgeons – Training requirements – Judicial review – Procedural requirements and fairness – Bias – Witnesses Alsaigh v. University of Ottawa, [2012] O.J. No. 2027, 2012 ONSC 2313, Ontario Superior Court of Justice, ...

The Court of Appeal dismissed the University of Calgary’s appeal from a judicial review decision quashing disciplinary findings and sanctions against students found by the University to have conducted non-academic misconduct by posting comments about their professor on a Facebook wall. While the Court of Appeal unanimously upheld the Chambers judge’s decision to quash the Review Committee’s decision, the Court issued three separate concurring judgments, with the lead judgment revisiting the Supreme Court of Canada’s 1990 decision in McKinney v. University of Guelph, [1990] 3 SCR 229, and concluding that McKinney does not always preclude the application of the Charter to universities. In this circumstance, the lead judgment found that the Charter applied to university discipline and the students’ rights had been breached. The other two concurring judgments found it unnecessary to analyze the applicability of the Charter.

26. June 2012 0
Administrative law – Decisions of administrative tribunals – University Committees – Universities – Student discipline – Internet – Social media – Charter of Rights and Freedoms – Freedom of expression – Judicial review – Procedural requirements and fairness – Failure to provide reasons – Compliance with legislation – Standard of review – Correctness – Reasonableness ...

The decision of the Senate to suspend a university student for misconduct was set aside for lack of procedural fairness and an order was made to implement the Senate Committee’s recommendation allowing the student’s appeal

22. May 2012 0
Administrative law – Decisions of administrative tribunals – University Committees – Universities – Student discipline – Investigations – Judicial review – Procedural requirements and fairness – Failure to provide reasons Dunne v. Memorial University of Newfoundland, [2012] N.J. No. 89, Newfoundland and Labrador Supreme Court, March 8, 2012, A.E. Faour J. Dunne, a student at ...

The duty of fairness dictates that a decision maker cannot be involved in every level of an applicant’s proceedings. Such involvement creates a reasonable apprehension of bias. This can apply even if the ultimate issue becomes moot.

28. February 2012 0
Administrative law – Decisions of administrative tribunals – University Committees – Universities – Evaluation of professors – Judicial review – Bias – Mootness – Procedural requirements and fairness – Natural justice Said v. University of Ottawa, [2011] O.J. No. 6043, 2011 ONSC 6179, Ontario Superior Court of Justice, Divisional Court, December 30, 2011, J.D. Cunningham ...