The Registrar brought a motion to stay a decision of the License Appeal Tribunal that set aside the Registrar's proposal to revoke and immediately suspend the respondent's crematorium license.
The respondent operated a low-temperature alkaline hydrolysis machine, which the Registrar argued posed a risk to public health due to uncertainty about its ability to destroy prions in the effluent.
The Divisional Court applied the RJR-MacDonald test and found that the appeal raised serious issues of law regarding the standard of risk assessment and the precautionary principle.
Concluding that the potential risk to public health constituted irreparable harm that outweighed the respondent's financial losses, the court granted the stay pending the disposition of the appeal.
