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VAVILOV - Jurisdiction - 'True' Jurisdictional Questions. Canada (Minister of Citizenship and Immigration) v. Vavilov
In Canada (Minister of Citizenship and Immigration) v. Vavilov (SCC, 2024) the Supreme Court of Canada revises the law of 'standard of review' ('SOR') for judicial reviews (JR) of administrative tribunal decisions and procedures. 'Standards of review' indicate the degree of deference that applies to the decisions of the lower court/tribunal/body - either on a JR or an appeal, by the reviewing body. The below extracts deal with 'reasonableness', the SOR for JRs - which are primarily addressed at errors by administrative tribunals - thus the term 'reasonableness review'.
Here the court characterizes the justification aspect of JR SOR 'reasonableness' as reason to dispense with the concept of 'true jurisdiction':[109] As stated above, a proper application of the reasonableness standard is capable of allaying the concern that an administrative decision maker might interpret the scope of its own authority beyond what the legislature intended. As a result, there is no need to maintain a category of “truly” jurisdictional questions that are subject to correctness review. Although a decision maker’s interpretation of its statutory grant of authority is generally entitled to deference, the decision maker must nonetheless properly justify that interpretation. Reasonableness review does not allow administrative decision makers to arrogate powers to themselves that they were never intended to have, and an administrative body cannot exercise authority which was not delegated to it. Contrary to our colleagues’ concern (at para. 285), this does not reintroduce the concept of “jurisdictional error” into judicial review, but merely identifies one of the obvious and necessary constraints imposed on administrative decision makers.
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