2007 ONCA 100

DATE: 20070215

DOCKET: C46047

COURT OF APPEAL FOR ONTARIO

RE:

RO: RI: WI: IO (Applicant/Appellant) – and - ATTORNEY GENERAL OF CANADA AND ATTORNEY GENERAL OF ONTARIO (Respondents/Respondents in Appeal)

BEFORE:

LASKIN, JURIANSZ JJ.A. and CUNNINGHAM A.C.J. (Ad hoc)

COUNSEL:

No one appearing

for the appellant

Michael Beggs and Anna Yarmon, for the respondent, Attorney General of Canada and Owen Young and Peter Lemmond, for the respondent, Attorney General of Ontario

HEARD:

February 8, 2007

On appeal from the judgment of Justice Robert Pelletier of the Superior Court of Justice, dated September 19, 2006.

E N D O R S E M E N T

[1] The appellant did not appear but relied on the submissions in his factum as to why the motion judge erred by dismissing his application.

[2] The motion judge regarded the application as an attack on the acquisition of sovereign jurisdiction by Canada. He observed that Canada is “a sovereign nation with plenary authority to exercise its legislative jurisdiction under its constitution and govern throughout its territory”. He struck the application because the courts lack authority to adjudicate upon challenges to Canada’s sovereignty.

[3] The appellant submits that the motion judge erred by understanding his application as a challenge to Canada’s sovereignty. We disagree. The appellant claims a declaration that certain lands in Ontario are not “Public Lands available for disposition or regulation by any Crown government…” In our view, no matter the underlying premise, such a dispute of legislative authority and control over public lands amounts to a challenge to sovereign jurisdiction.

[4] We note that the appellant does not assert aboriginal title over the land. Such a claim would not challenge Canada’s sovereignty because aboriginal title exists within Canadian sovereignty.

[5] The court lacked jurisdiction to entertain the appellant’s application as framed and the motion judge was correct to strike it.

[6] The appeal is dismissed. The respondents did not seek costs.

“J.I. Laskin J.A.”

“R. Juriansz J.A.”

“J.D. Cunningham A.C.J. (Ad hoc)