In Canada v. BCS Group Business Services Inc., 2020 FCA 205, the Court found that a corporation in a general procedure appeal must be represented by a lawyer.
[6] For the reasons that follow, I have concluded that the legislator did not intend to oust the common law and civil law principle that a corporation, because of its very nature, cannot appear
“in person”before a court. It can only be represented by an agent who is a distinct person than the corporation. In my view, the grammatical structure of the provision is not sufficient to reach a different conclusion when one considers the nature of the rights described in the paragraph, the clear statutory scheme and its object. By adopting detailed provisions dealing with representation in the Act, the legislator limited the TCC’s implied power to control who may represent the corporation in their courtroom, especially in proceedings subject to the General Procedure.
I like lawyers as much as the next guy, but I’m sorry that the Tax Court has lost the discretion to allow corporations to be “self-represented” in appropriate cases. Some corporations cannot afford a lawyer, but they might still have a good case that they can present to a Tax Court judge anyway. Maybe the Federal Court of Appeal agrees with that idea — see ¶3 of its decision — but apparently the Court felt bound by the law it found.
