Current Blog

This current blog was opened in February 2019, and contains all materials and comments posted since that date.  In the “blog, archived”, visitors will find all Ellis’s posts between February 28, 2013 and November 27, 2017, the latter date marking the beginning of a 15-month lapse in Ellis’s attention to this site – a lapse for which he apologizes.  

If you want to look for a specific topic, you can select a category from the sidebar or use the search function to explore topics in-depth. The search function will search in both the current blog and the archived blog, as well as across all pages in the site.

MODEL ADMINISTRATIVE JUSTICE ACT UPDATE

HERE ARE THE KEYNOTE FEATURES OF THE MODEL ACT AS REVISED AND EXPANDED IN THE “FINAL VARIANT” . [The keynote features that are new in the Final Variant are identified by bolded script.] You can view the Model Act here. …

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An Administrative Justice Fix – A Model Act

Experience in recent years has reminded us of the fragility of justice in administrative justice systems when they find themselves in the hands of governments that see adjudicative tribunals as vessels of partisan power and patronage opportunities. That experience has…
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Tribunal Justice Survey

Tribunal Watch Ontario is working with the University of Waterloo in conducting a survey of advocates with significant experience dealing with one or more of Ontario’s adjudicative tribunals on behalf of clients during the period March 31, 2019 to March…

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How Bad is it? Very Very

This post is about the decimation of the Social Benefits Tribunal as recently reported by Tribunal Watch Ontario.  See Statement of Concern. What does the Social Benefits Tribunal Do? Claimants applying to the SBT are among the poorest and most…

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Tribunal Watch Ontario

New Sheriff in Town There is a new sheriff in town – an organization just getting itself up and running called Tribunal Watch Ontario. It has emerged in response to the Ford government’s ferocious and devastating attack on Ontario’s system…

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Administrative Justice – Back to the Future

Looking back on the 2008 UofT Symposium on the Future of Administrative Justice and comparing the hopeful presentations and discussions at that Symposium, as they appear in Lorne Sossin’s detailed Report, with the “Future” as we are now seeing…
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UNJUST BUDGETS – Constitutionally Valid?

Are there any rule-of-law limits to the level of funding an executive branch may provide for an adjudicative tribunal? Here is an article on that subject, originally posted on this site on March 15, 2013.
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September 18 meeting – Clarification

  Lest there be any misunderstanding, this author’s advocacy for a class action based on claims for damages for breach of contract by adjudicators whose expected reappointments were refused is not principally motivated by a concern for the personal interests…

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LEGAL REMEDIES POSTSCRIPT

It has been put to me that my June 5, 2019 post on the possibility of a breach-of-contract action as a remedy for the government’s refusal of expected reappointments has a potential flaw; that I might not have given sufficient…
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REFUSED YOUR REAPPOINTMENT?  HERE’S AN OPPORTUNITY

Word has it that members of Ontario adjudicative tribunals whose expected reappointments have been refused, plan to meet informally in September with a view to sharing experiences and beginning a discussion of possible options. I am advised that the meeting…

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Refused Reappointments Legal Remedies Group Action

Posted here is a memorandum that explores the legal actions that might be brought against the Government of Ontario for its arbitrary refusals to reappoint incumbent, meritorious Members and Vice-Chairs of Ontario’s adjudicative tribunals when those reappointments were rightfully expected…

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On the Sidelines, No Place for Lawyers

As we watch the Ford government’s attack on the impartiality and competence of Ontario’s adjudicative tribunals, it is time to refresh our understanding of the legal profession’s obligation to defend the justice system. The obligation of lawyers to defend the…

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Adjudicative Tribunals – Ocean Port or the Rule of Law

As we ponder the question of whether the Ford government’s assault on the security of tenure of adjudicators in Ontario’s administrative justice system is constitutionally valid, and await the decision of the BC Court of Appeal in Walter v. BC[1],…
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Parkdale to close!!!

While the Ford government is busy destroying the independence and impartiality of our administrative justice tribunals, it is also wreaking havoc with the legal aid services on which much of the advocacy before those tribunals depend. Now comes news that…

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Administrative Justice In The Ford Era – No. 3 In The Series

In this, the third post on Ford’s administrative-justice policies, the topic is the remedies that would present themselves were it found that, notwithstanding Ocean Port, the unwritten, constitutional principle of judicial independence does apply to adjudicative tribunals – a proposition…
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