Jennifer P. Saville

The moving parties, a group of telecommunications companies, brought a motion for directions seeking disclosure and production of internal documents and communications from the Ontario Energy Board to form the record for their challenge of a new Pole Attachment Charge.

The court applied the 'meaningful judicial review test' to determine the required contents of the record, as the Statutory Powers Procedure Act did not apply.

The court concluded that the requested documents, including drafts, internal correspondence, and identities of report authors, were not necessary for a meaningful review of the moving parties' complaints regarding process, burden of proof, and ignored submissions.

The motion for disclosure and production was dismissed.

The plaintiffs successfully defeated the defendant's anti-SLAPP motion under s. 137.1 of the Courts of Justice Act and sought partial indemnity costs of $43,641.16.

The court considered the presumption in s. 137.1(8) that a successful responding party is not entitled to costs unless appropriate in the circumstances.

The court found that the plaintiffs' defamation claim was weak and appeared to be used strategically to extract a gag order from the defendant.

Given the strategic behaviour of both parties, the court declined to award costs to the plaintiffs.

The applicants, members of a pro-life student group, sought judicial review of the Ryerson Students’ Union’s decision to deny their group "Student Group status." The RSU denied status based on its pro-choice, pro-feminist policies.

The court addressed whether it had jurisdiction to review the RSU's decision and whether the decision attracted Charter scrutiny.

The court found the RSU to be a private entity, not subject to administrative law principles or Charter scrutiny in this context, and dismissed the application.