Court File and Parties

Court File No.: CV-23-692870 Date: 2023/06/14 Court of Ontario, Superior Court of Justice

Re: Adan McIntosh, Plaintiff And: Sharon Shore, Faye McWatt and Geoffrey Morawetz, Defendants

Before: Mr. Justice C. MacLeod

Counsel: Adan McIntosh, for himself Ananthan Sinnadurai, for the Defendants

Heard: June 4, 2023 – in writing

Decision & Reasons

[1] This is a motion brought in a Toronto proceeding by the Plaintiff who is a resident of Australia and a party to a family law proceeding. He is also party to a series of actions in which he has attempted to sue judges of this court. This particular action is an action against the Toronto Family Team leader, the Associate Chief Justice and the Chief Justice.

[2] On May 9, 2023, Corthorn J. dismissed Toronto action CV-22-692331 (which was an action against Sutherland J.) pursuant to Rule 2.1 of the Rules of Civil Procedure. See 2023 ONSC 2788. That action was dismissed as being, on its face, frivolous, vexatious and an abuse of process.

[3] The motion I am dealing with today was launched by the Plaintiff on May 10, 2023 and sent to the Toronto motions office seeking to have the motion heard as an urgent motion. It was then forwarded to Ottawa with a request that an out-of-town judge (i.e., not a Toronto judge) deal with the motion. The motion only recently came to my attention.

[4] The motion seeks “an order to recuse Justice Corthorn and any judge who is acting at the direction of any of the defendants or is represented by the [sic] any member of the Attorney General of Ontario”. Alternatively, he sought an order to stay this action (his own action) pending this motion or “a separate action to determine the lawfulness of the Attorney General of Ontario representing judges of the Superior Court”.

[5] On May 25, 2023, Corthorn J. released a decision in this action dismissing the action against the Chief Justice and Associate Chief Justice pursuant to Rule 2.1. See 2023 ONSC 3124. I attach a copy of that decision to this endorsement.

[6] Corthorn J. was not aware of this motion when she released that decision. Mr. McIntosh would not have been aware that there was a Rule 2.1 referral because as can be seen from the decision, Corthorn J. determined that the action against these two defendants was, on its face, impossible of success and therefore no notice to Mr. McIntosh was required. As I will come to in a moment, that is neither here nor there because the motion is also frivolous and vexatious on its face.

[7] I am dismissing the motion without a hearing for the following reasons. Firstly, the motion is moot because Corthorn J. has already dealt with the matter. Ordinarily that would leave Mr. McIntosh with two routes. He could move before Corthorn J. to set aside the order and hear the recusal motion or he could appeal and raise the reasonable apprehension of bias argument before the Court of Appeal. I am not suggesting he should do so in this case given the frivolous nature of his claims. Judges cannot be sued for carrying out their duties as judges.

[8] The second reason I am dismissing the motion is that the recusal motion is also frivolous and should be dismissed under Rule 2.1. Just because a judge has previously ruled against a litigant is not grounds to allege bias and does not give rise to the appearance of bias. The idea that no judge acting at the direction of the Chief Justice can hear a matter is, on its face, impossible of success because every judge of the Superior Court operates under the direction of the Chief Justice whose duty it is to direct the sittings of the court and the assignment of judges.

[9] The motion may not be properly before the court because it does not appear to have been filed with the Registrar in Toronto but in any event, it has been brought to my attention in my capacity as the Regional Senior Judge in Ottawa.

[10] The motion is clearly improper, frivolous and vexatious and relates to an action that has now been dismissed against the Chief and Associate Chief. The motion is dismissed.

Regional Senior Justice C. MacLeod Date: June 14, 2023