Mr. Qi

The appellant brought a motion to preemptively restrict a lay witness, the president of the responding neighbourhood association, from giving opinion evidence regarding a severance and minor variance application.

The appellant argued that since their own witnesses were qualified experts, the lay witness should be limited to factual evidence unless she met the test in R v Graat.

The tribunal dismissed the motion as premature, noting that the distinction between fact and opinion can be argued in closing submissions, and emphasized that the Statutory Powers Procedure Act grants the tribunal broad discretion to admit evidence that might be inadmissible in a court.