Ottawa –
The Supreme Court of Canada has clarified the legal path for judges when reviewing the validity of government regulations, guidelines or other such instruments.
In a pair of decisions Friday, the Supreme Court pointed to a 2019 top court ruling in a case known as Vavilov, which established a comprehensive framework for determining the applicable standard of review.
The Vavilov case involved review of an administrative decision by the federal registrar of citizenship.
In its latest decisions, the Supreme Court said the standard for gauging reasonableness set out in the Vavilov framework is presumed to apply when reviewing government regulations and other rules.
Such guidelines and rules do not flow directly from Parliament or a legislature, but rather from agencies vested with the authority to make them — for instance, through an enabling statute.
The Supreme Court said a judge’s role is to review the legality or validity of these …