COURT OF APPEAL FOR ONTARIO

DATE: 20040525

DOCKET: M31174

RE: HER MAJESTY THE QUEEN (Responding Party/Municipal Prosecutor) v. THE TORONTO DISTRICT OF THE FREE METHODIST CHURCH OF CANADA (Moving Party/Defendant)

BEFORE: McMURTRY C.J.O. (IN CHAMBERS)

COUNSEL: Tim Bermingham and Dera J. Nevin for the moving party, The Toronto District of the Free Methodist Church of Canada

Paul Bigioni for the respondent

HEARD: May 20, 2004

On appeal from the judgment of Justice Vibert A. Lampkin dated March 8, 2004.

E N D O R S E M E N T

[1] While the decision of Lampkin J. is of obvious importance to the appellant, I am not satisfied that the hearing of this appeal by this court is essential in the public interest or for the due administration of justice.

[2] I have come to this conclusion for the following reasons:

(a) Neither the zoning by-law nor the decision of the Ontario Court of Justice have in any way altered the scope of the legal non-conforming use concept found in s. 34(9) of the Planning Act.

(b) The Court below did not accept an unreasonably broad definition of “building” under the zoning by-law.

(c) I do not find that there is any finding in the Reasons for Judgment of either court below that prevents the continuation of the use of the land in question as a seasonal camp.

[3] The applications for leave to appeal to this court on both conviction and sentence are therefore dismissed.

_____ “R. Roy McMurtry C.J.O.”