Case information

Administrative law — Boards and tribunals — School Boards — Judicial Review — Reconsideration — Whether and how doctrines of functus officio, res judicata and issue estoppel apply to school boards — Standard of review applicable to decisions of school boards — Whether school board could use power of reconsideration to find that a trustee had breached code of conduct after earlier decision finding no breach — Whether Court of Appeal erred in affirming judgment that school board decision was reviewable on a standard of reasonableness — Whether Court of Appeal erred in affirming judgment that school board decision was reasonable.

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.

The applicant was an elected trustee of the respondent school board. The board sought an independent review of the applicant’s comments made during a debate on adding protected grounds to its code of conduct. The investigator’s report recommended the finding of a breach of the code of conduct. The board considered the report and was one vote short of the required number in order to find a breach, and that decision was subsequently the subject of a strong negative public response. Pursuant to a reconsideration power in its by-law, the board then reconsidered its decision and found the applicant to have breached the code of conduct; it imposed various sanctions on the applicant.

On judicial review, the Divisional Court applied a standard of reasonableness and upheld the board’s decision. The board’s application of its reconsideration power was authorized and reasonable. The Court of Appeal upheld the Divisional Court’s decision and dismissed the applicant’s appeal. There was no error in applying the standard of reasonableness and there was no error in concluding as to the reasonableness of the board’s decision.