Case information

Civil procedure — Appeals — Abuse of process — Action commenced against respondents with respect to applicant’s experiences as child in care, and with respect to disclosure of youth records to third party — Causes of action against respondents largely dismissed — Applicant bringing fresh motion seeking additional relief — Courts below dismissing motion — Whether respondents failed to destroy certain records pursuant to court order — Whether intrinsic and extrinsic fraud has been committed in court — Whether miscarriages of justice have occurred — Whether there has been torture and illegal and arbitrary deprivation of liberty of a child — Whether a child can assert Charter rights — Whether Children’s Aid Society is agent of government.

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.

(PUBLICATION BAN ON PARTY)

The applicant, M.C.D., commenced an action against the respondents, stemming from M.C.D.’s experiences as a child in care, and from an allegedly wrongful disclosure of youth criminal records to a third party. Most of M.C.D.’s causes of action against were dismissed by way of summary judgment, with the exception of the wrongful disclosure allegation against the Children’s Aid Society of Toronto. M.C.D. then brought a new motion seeking various forms of relief, including adding new causes of action and new parties to the underlying litigation.

A judge of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice dismissed M.C.D.’s motion for relief as being “frivolous, vexatious and an abuse of process”, given that the motion appeared to be an attempt to re-litigate the same issues and causes of action that had already been dismissed. A panel of the Ontario Court of Appeal dismissed M.C.D.’s appeal from that motion decision, for the same reason.