Vilko Zbogar

Five organizations brought motions for leave to intervene in an appeal concerning the constitutionality of provincial legislation that required the removal of bicycle lanes in Toronto.

The underlying judgment found the legislation violated section 7 of the Charter.

The motion judge granted leave to all five proposed interveners, but limited the scope of their interventions to specific issues such as the positive/negative rights dichotomy, the interpretation of recent section 7 jurisprudence, and the application of equality and child-interest principles to the gross disproportionality analysis.

The interveners were restricted to 10-page factums and brief oral submissions.

The plaintiffs brought a motion to compel the defendants to answer fifteen refusals from examinations for discovery and written interrogatories.

The underlying action involves an environmental investigation.

The court reviewed each refusal, upholding several on the basis of solicitor-client privilege, proportionality, and sufficient prior answers, while ordering the defendants to answer others, including clarifying transcript discrepancies and conducting specific email searches.

The motion was granted in part.

The defendants brought a motion to compel the plaintiffs to answer questions refused on discovery and for a declaration that the plaintiffs waived solicitor-client privilege over legal advice received from their former counsel.

The defendants argued privilege was waived through the plaintiffs' pleadings of duress, their discovery evidence, and by publicly filing documents in a separate small claims court action against the counsel.

The court held that the plaintiffs did not waive privilege in this action because they did not put the legal advice in issue or rely on it for their claims.

While privilege was waived over the publicly filed documents, those documents were deemed irrelevant to the current action.

The court also ruled on several other discovery refusals, upholding some and ordering answers or redactions for others.

The parties sought costs following a series of motions concerning document production and privilege.

The plaintiffs had been unsuccessful on all their motions, including an attempt to set aside prior orders based on unproven allegations of fraud against the Crown.

The Crown and another defendant, Sandra Antoniani, were successful in their respective motions.

The court awarded partial indemnity costs to Antoniani in the amount of $25,635.80.

The court awarded the Crown $25,000 in partial indemnity costs for its clawback motion and $45,000 in substantial indemnity costs for responding to the plaintiffs' motions, noting the plaintiffs' unproven allegations of fraud and unnecessary prolongation of the proceedings.

The plaintiffs sued the Crown and others for misfeasance in public office and defamation related to regulatory charges.

The plaintiffs moved for further document disclosure, arguing the Crown's production was deficient compared to documents released under the Access to Information Act.

The Crown moved to claw back privileged documents inadvertently disclosed under the Act.

The court dismissed the plaintiffs' motions, finding that the different criteria for civil discovery and access to information requests explained the discrepancy in document volume.

The court upheld the Crown's claims of solicitor-client privilege over communications between the prosecutor and regulatory investigators, and found that the inadvertent disclosure did not constitute a waiver of privilege.

The plaintiffs were ordered to return and destroy the privileged documents.

The plaintiffs brought a motion for a further extension of time to deliver their affidavits of documents and an expert report on damages in a $50 million action against the government.

The defendants did not oppose the extension but sought terms requiring the plaintiffs to post security for costs and pay costs thrown away due to the plaintiffs' failure to comply with previous scheduling orders.

The court granted the extension but ordered the plaintiffs to post $230,000 in security for costs and pay $20,000 in costs thrown away, finding that the plaintiffs had failed to commit the necessary resources to advance their claims efficiently and had breached court orders.

The defendant, a federal standing Crown agent, moved to strike the plaintiffs' statement of claim under Rule 21.01(1)(b) on the basis of prosecutorial immunity and failure to plead sufficient facts for malicious prosecution.

The plaintiffs alleged misfeasance in public office, abuse of process, conspiracy, and malicious prosecution arising from the defendant's involvement in an environmental investigation and subsequent prosecution.

The court dismissed the motion, finding it was not plain and obvious that the claims were barred by prosecutorial immunity, as the jurisprudence on whether other torts can be brought against prosecutors remains unsettled.

The court also found the plaintiffs pleaded sufficient material facts to support the elements of malicious prosecution.

The plaintiffs, engaged in the hazardous waste disposal business, were investigated by Environment Canada, resulting in the execution of two search warrants and the laying of charges.

The plaintiffs commenced multiple Small Claims Court actions against the Crown defendants and various officials, alleging improper conduct during the investigations and searches.

These actions were transferred to the Superior Court and consolidated.

The plaintiffs brought a motion for leave to amend their statement of claim to divide the action into four separate claims and to add new causes of action, including negligence, Charter breaches, misfeasance in public office, and malicious prosecution, as well as new parties.

The defendants opposed the amendments, arguing they were statute-barred by the Limitations Act.

The court granted the plaintiffs' motion to amend, finding that the original pleadings contained sufficient material facts to support the alternative theories of liability, while granting the defendants leave to raise limitation period defences in respect of certain claims.