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Law Society Act binds Crown employees providing legal services; WSIA exemption not extended.
The applicant regulator sought declarations that the Law Society Act licensing requirements for paralegals apply to provincial Crown employees providing legal services, including those advising or representing workers in employer reprisal matters under s. 50 of the Occupational Health and Safety Act.
The union argued that the Crown was immune from the Act and alternatively that a by-law exemption applicable to legal services under the Workplace Safety and Insurance Act extended to these matters.
The court held that although the statute does not expressly bind the Crown, it does so by necessary implication because the Act’s purpose is to protect the public through licensing of legal service providers.
Allowing Crown employees to provide legal services without licensing would frustrate that purpose and produce an absurd regulatory gap.
The court further held that the by-law exemption is limited to services relating to the Workplace Safety and Insurance Act and does not extend to Occupational Health and Safety Act reprisal proceedings.
Appeal from summary judgment dismissed as limitation period was not postponed by newly discovered letter.
The appellants appealed a summary judgment dismissing their claim.
The motion judge had concluded that a letter found by one of the appellants in February 2003 did not postpone the running of the limitation period.
The Court of Appeal agreed with the motion judge's thorough and careful reasons and dismissed the appeal, awarding costs to the respondents.
