Priscila Jales Portela Atkinson

The plaintiffs sued multiple defendants, including an insurer and its subcontractors, for various torts arising from the handling of a statutory accident benefits claim.

The defendants brought Rule 21 motions to strike the claims for lack of jurisdiction and disclosing no reasonable cause of action.

The court refused to strike the action for lack of jurisdiction because of an outstanding constitutional challenge to the Insurance Act.

However, the court struck all tort claims against the moving defendants, except for the claim of intentional infliction of emotional distress, finding it was plain and obvious they could not succeed.

The court also struck the plaintiff's constitutional challenges to the Statutory Accident Benefits Schedule as an abuse of process.

The appellants challenged the constitutional validity of the Tamil Genocide Education Week Act, 2021, arguing it was ultra vires Ontario and infringed their rights to free expression and equality under the Charter.

The Court of Appeal upheld the Act, finding its dominant purpose was to affirm and commemorate the Tamil-Ontarian community's experience, which falls within Ontario's power over local matters under s. 92(16) of the Constitution Act, 1867.

The Court also dismissed the Charter claims, concluding the Act does not suppress expression or draw a discriminatory distinction against Sinhala-Buddhists.

The applicant, a declared vexatious litigant, sought leave under s. 140(3) of the Courts of Justice Act to institute a proceeding against the Crown regarding the Ontario government's decision on the Ontario Science Centre.

The court dismissed the application for leave, finding that the proposed proceeding lacked a legal basis and reasonable grounds, and the applicant failed to demonstrate standing to raise the public policy issues.

The Crown appealed a Superior Court decision striking down the Toronto Transit Commission Labour Disputes Resolution Act, 2011, which eliminated TTC employees' right to strike and replaced it with binding interest arbitration.

The Court of Appeal dismissed the appeal, holding that the complete ban on strikes violates the employees' right to meaningful collective bargaining under s. 2(d) of the Charter.

The Court further found that the Crown failed to justify the infringement under s. 1, as it did not demonstrate that the complete ban was minimally impairing or that its salutary effects outweighed the deleterious effects on the workers' Charter rights.

The applicant, an 83-year-old man, sought judicial review of the Minister of Transportation's decision to suspend his driver's license after he failed to provide medical evidence of his cognitive fitness to drive.

At a case conference, the applicant sought a stay of the suspension pending the hearing of the application.

The court dismissed the request for a stay, finding no serious issue to be tried and that the balance of convenience overwhelmingly favoured protecting the public over the applicant's desire to drive.

The plaintiffs brought a motion to certify a class action against the Government of Ontario regarding the psychiatric treatment of patients detained in the PST Unit of the St. Thomas Psychiatric Hospital between 1976 and 1992.

The plaintiffs alleged that the 'PST Program' was an experimental, abusive therapeutic community that improperly delegated treatment and punishment decisions to 'patient-teachers', resulting in physical and psychological harm.

The court granted certification, finding that the pleadings disclosed causes of action for negligence, breach of fiduciary duty, vicarious liability, and breaches of sections 7, 12, and 15 of the Charter.

However, the court narrowed the common issues, certifying questions related to systemic negligence, fiduciary duty, vicarious liability, and limitation periods, while directing that Charter breaches, causation, and damages must be determined at individual issues trials.

The court concluded that a class proceeding was the preferable procedure to advance the claims of the highly marginalized class members.

The moving party sought to review a December 2, 2022 order of a single judge of the Court of Appeal and requested an adjournment at the hearing.

The Court dismissed the adjournment request as unfounded.

The review motion itself was found to be without merit, as the original order contained no error and was, in fact, helpful to the moving party by providing directions, relief from rules compliance, and an extension to perfect a motion for leave to appeal.

The review motion was dismissed, and the moving party was granted a final 30-day extension to perfect his motion for leave to appeal, with costs awarded to the responding party.

This endorsement addresses four motions for leave to intervene as friends of the court in a constitutional challenge brought by Animal Justice et al. against the Security from Trespass and Protecting Food Safety Act, 2020.

The applicants in the main case allege violations of Charter rights, including freedom of expression, freedom of the press, peaceful assembly, liberty, security of the person, arbitrary detention, and reverse onus.

The court applied the test for intervention, considering the nature of the case, the issues, and the likelihood of a useful contribution without causing injustice or expanding the record.

The motion by Justice for Migrant Workers was dismissed for lack of a substantial interest and for attempting to expand the issues.

The motion by Centre for Free Expression was allowed in part, limited to the existing issues and excluding a proposed s. 2(a) Charter argument due to lack of a developed record and expertise.

The motions by Animal Alliance of Canada and Regan Russell Foundation were fully allowed, as they met the criteria and did not seek to expand the issues.

All successful interventions were granted subject to specific conditions on written and oral submissions.

The applicants, representing various public sector unions, challenged the constitutionality of the Protecting a Sustainable Public Sector for Future Generations Act, 2019 (Bill 124), which limited wage increases for broader public sector employees to 1% per year for a three-year moderation period.

The court found that the Act substantially interfered with the applicants' right to freedom of association under s. 2(d) of the Charter by preventing meaningful collective bargaining over wages and other compensation-related issues.

The court dismissed the applicants' claims under s. 2(b) (freedom of expression) and s. 15 (equality rights).

The court further held that the infringement of s. 2(d) was not saved by s. 1 of the Charter, as the government failed to demonstrate a pressing and substantial objective or that the measure was minimally impairing.

The Act was declared void and of no effect.