In a child protection proceeding, the mother's lawyer brought a motion to be removed from the record.
The court granted the motion but noted that the Family Law Rules require the filing of confidential, potentially prejudicial evidence that is not shared with other parties and is subsequently removed from the court file.
The court held that a judge who receives such secret information during a solicitor-removal motion should be presumed precluded from presiding over the eventual trial to avoid any reasonable apprehension of bias or procedural unfairness.
Consequently, the judge recused himself from the upcoming trial.
