Robert Valentine Wright

The applicant, Earthroots Coalition, sought judicial review of the Minister of Natural Resources' decision to permit the improvement and use of a logging road crossing the Bob Lake Conservation Reserve.

The applicant argued the road use violated the Conservation Reserve Regulation, which prohibits commercial forest harvest and industrial uses in the reserve.

Applying a reasonableness standard of review, the Divisional Court dismissed the application.

The court held that the regulation must be interpreted purposively within the broader legislative framework of the Public Lands Act and the Crown Forest Sustainability Act, making the Minister's decision to balance conservation with forest management objectives reasonable.

Appeal from an order staying the public hearings of a provincial inquiry into a fatal mine explosion while criminal proceedings against certain mine managers were pending.

The Court held that the inquiry served a legitimate and pressing public purpose, and that the accused managers were compellable witnesses subject to constitutional protections against use of their testimony and derivative evidence.

The Court rejected a broad stay as the appropriate remedy for anticipated prejudice, emphasizing that fair trial concerns from publicity ordinarily should be addressed through narrower measures such as publication restrictions and by the commissioner in the first instance.

The appeal was allowed and the stay of the public hearings was set aside.