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Stay of public inquiry proceedings granted pending application for leave to appeal.
The applicants sought a stay of a ruling by the Commissioner of the Cornwall Public Inquiry and a Divisional Court decision pending an application for leave to appeal.
The Commissioner had ruled he had jurisdiction to hear evidence from two witnesses regarding alleged police failure to respond to a sexual assault complaint.
Applying the RJR-MacDonald test, the court found a serious question to be tried, irreparable harm to the applicants' reputation if the evidence was heard publicly before the appeal, and that the balance of convenience favoured granting the stay.
The motion for a stay was granted and the leave application expedited.
Provincial inquiry was unconstitutional because it replicated a criminal investigation.
The appellants challenged a provincial commission of inquiry into alleged dealings between named private individuals, a corporation, and public officials.
The majority held that, in pith and substance, the inquiry functioned as a substitute police investigation and preliminary inquiry into a specific Criminal Code offence, thereby intruding on Parliament's exclusive jurisdiction over criminal law and criminal procedure under s. 91(27) of the Constitution Act, 1867.
The naming of private individuals, the close mirroring of s. 121 of the Criminal Code, and the inquiry's coercive powers were found cumulatively to render the Order in Council ultra vires.
The Court therefore allowed the appeal and did not decide the remaining Charter issues.
