Gergely Hegedus, “SCC on Standards of Judicial Review” (February 2020) 10:1 Canadian Tax Focus, draws the following lessons from Canada (Minister of Citizenship and Immigration) v Vavilov, 2019 SCC 65, Bell Canada v Canada (Attorney General), 2019 SCC 66, and Canada Post Corp. v Canadian Union of Postal Workers, 2019 SCC 67:
- A reviewing court might be more likely not to remit a matter where the outcome is inevitable.
- The standard of review generally remains reasonableness.
- Decisions are presumed to be reasonable even when they depended on matters of statutory interpretation.
- The standard is not reasonableness where the relevant legislation says otherwise or “the rule of law requires the standard of correctness to apply.”
