Ajanthana Anandarajah

The Council of Ontario Universities brought a motion for leave to intervene as a friend of the court in an application for judicial review of a Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario decision.

The underlying decision ordered the applicant university to implement a pilot project for admitting students with disabilities based on prior learning and assessment recognition rather than purely grades.

The court granted the motion, finding that the Council's sector-wide perspective on university autonomy and human rights compliance would usefully contribute to the determination of the application without causing injustice to the parties.

The applicant, a nursing student, sought judicial review of a university tribunal's decision upholding her failing grade in a clinical placement and her subsequent removal from the nursing program.

The applicant argued the decision was unreasonable, illegal, and procedurally unfair, and sought to introduce fresh evidence.

The Divisional Court dismissed the motion for fresh evidence, finding it did not meet the exceptions for judicial review.

Applying the reasonableness standard, the court found the tribunal's decision was justified, transparent, and intelligible.

The court also held that the applicant was afforded a high level of procedural fairness throughout the tribunal process.

The application for judicial review was dismissed.

The appellant, Ahmad Mohammad (also known as Ahmad Yousef), brought three appeals from Superior Court orders dismissing his actions under Rule 2.1.01 of the Rules of Civil Procedure.

The Court of Appeal considered dismissing the appeals and revoking the appellant's fee waivers under the Administration of Justice Act.

The court found the proceedings to be frivolous, vexatious, and an abuse of process, lacking intelligible grounds or causes of action.

The panel review motions for two appeals (McMaster University and Chaimowitz) were dismissed under r. 2.1.02, and the third appeal (Google) was dismissed under r. 2.1.01 for failure to perfect.

The court also revoked the appellant's fee waivers and prohibited further fee waiver requests without judicial permission.

No costs were awarded.

The applicants, four university students, sought judicial review of the respondent university's decision to deny their requests for religious exemptions from its mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policy.

The students argued the university's decisions were unreasonable and breached procedural fairness.

The Divisional Court held that while it had jurisdiction to review the decisions, the core issue was a claim of discrimination based on creed, which should be adjudicated by the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario.

The court also found that the university met the rudimentary duty of procedural fairness owed to the students given the context of the pandemic and the institutional constraints.

The application was dismissed.