Case information

None.

Case summaries are prepared by the Office of the Registrar of the Supreme Court of Canada (Law Branch). Please note that summaries are not provided to the Judges of the Court. They are placed on the Court file and website for information purposes only.

Administrative law - Law of professions - Disciplinary tribunals - Impartiality of tribunal - Bankruptcy and insolvency - Trustees - Trustees in bankruptcy having to answer to Superintendent of Bankruptcy for disciplinary offences - Superintendent of Bankruptcy exercising and delegating, at his discretion, both investigative power and decision-making power - Whether disciplinary tribunal independent enough to be impartial - Whether Bill can uphold statute that leaves it entirely to discretion of decision-making body to ensure its own institutional independence - In context of s. 2(e) of Bill, whether institutional independence, as guarantee of fundamental justice, would not require disciplinary tribunal established by Superintendent of Bankruptcy to have structure requiring and not merely permitting independence of its members - Whether principle of neutral effect of statute developed by Quebec Court of Appeal in Métivier can be used to analyse provisions in issue in examining guarantee of institutional independence required by Bill - Whether Court of Appeal erred in stating that case law covered and made it possible to validate jurisdiction in issue - Canadian Bill of Rights, S.C. 1960, c. 44, s. 2(e) - Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act, R.S.C. 1985, c. B-3, ss. 14.01 and 14.02.

The Applicant trustees had to answer to the Superintendent of Bankruptcy for disciplinary offences. In May 2001, they filed a motion for a declaratory judgment and in evocation with the Quebec Superior Court seeking to have the jurisdiction exercised by the Superintendent declared inconsistent with the guarantees of independence and impartiality provided for in the Canadian Bill of Rights. The Respondent federal authorities moved for the dismissal of the Applicants' proceedings. The Superior Court dismissed the motion. The Court of Appeal set aside that decision and allowed the motion to dismiss.