Susan Bridget Keenan

Following a successful appeal by the Attorney General of Canada, the parties made written submissions on costs.

The respondents, who were unsuccessful on the appeal, sought costs on the basis that they were public interest litigants raising issues of broad public importance regarding s. 2(d) of the Charter.

The appellant sought costs following the event.

The Court of Appeal set aside the application judge's costs award and ordered no costs for the appeal, finding that while the case raised issues of broad public interest and the jurisprudence had shifted during the appeal, there was no rationale for awarding costs to unsuccessful public interest litigants.

Ontario-resident plaintiffs sued a London hotel in Ontario after a slip and fall in a hotel bathroom during a vacation in the United Kingdom.

The defendant hotel moved to dismiss the action for lack of jurisdiction.

Applying the presumptive connecting factors set out in Club Resorts Ltd. v. Van Breda, the court held there was no real and substantial connection between Ontario and the dispute.

The hotel had no office, employees, or targeted marketing in Ontario, and the mere fact that the hotel could be booked through a Canadian travel rewards website did not establish that it carried on business in the province.

The court also found that no contract connected with the dispute was formed in Ontario.

The applicants, independent private associations of RCMP members, challenged the constitutionality of provisions excluding RCMP members from the Public Service Labour Relations Act and establishing the Staff Relations Representative Program (SRRP).

The application judge found that the SRRP violated s. 2(d) of the Charter.

The Court of Appeal allowed the Attorney General's appeal, holding that s. 2(d) protects the right to collective bargaining only in a derivative sense, and it was not effectively impossible for RCMP members to meaningfully exercise their freedom of association.

The cross-appeal regarding freedom of expression and the exclusion from the PSLRA was dismissed.