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219Governmental
Power and COVID-19: The Limits of Judicial Review
natural person,”31 it has the inherent authority to enter into contracts,
take out newspaper advertisements, and publish guidelines as to how
its powers will be exercised.
It would be difficult to successfully seek a judicial review of any
decision made by the Crown corporation envisaged by Bill C-13 or
any contract entered into by the federal or provincial governments
in the pursuit of medical supplies or vaccines. Judicial review, which
permits the invalidation of governmental decisions, “is reserved for
state action.”32 Courts typically weigh several factors in the balance
in determining whether a particular decision is subject to judicial
review,33 but, in general, decisions to enter into contracts are sin-
gularly unlikely to qualify as state action.34 Absent a violation of a
statutory provision, allegations of “fraud, bribery, corruption or other
kinds of grave misconduct,”35 or some other special marker of public
importance, courts will not be able to justify subjecting exercises of
dominium to judicial review.
There is a recent strand of Commonwealth case law that sug-
gests the principles of public law can be injected into contractual
arrangements. Where contractual discretionary powers exist, they
must be exercised in accordance with public law principles.36 This
strand has not yet been woven into the tapestry of Canadian law.37
Even if Canadian courts were to do so, it is not clear that contracts for
the supply of vital medical equipment, antiviral drugs, or vaccines
would contain any discretionary powers into which courts could
inject principles of public law. And, of course, such principles could
only be invoked by an unhappy party to a contract with the federal or
provincial governments, who would be seeking to advance its com-
mercial interests, not the public interest.
31. Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Assn of Canada v British Columbia (Attorney General)
(1997), 149 DLR (4th) 613 at para 27, [1998] 1 WWR 702.
32. Highwood Congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses (Judicial Committee) v Wall, 2018
SCC 26 at para 12.
33. See Air Canada v Toronto Port Authority and Porter Airlines Inc, 2011 FCA 347 at
para 60 [Air Canada].
34. See e.g. ibid at para 52 (contract for janitorial services); Ferme ViBer inc v Financière
agricole du Québec, 2016 SCC 34 at para 46 (government stabilization program);
People
for
the
Ethical
Treatment
of
Animals,
Inc
v
City
of
Toronto, 2020 ONSC 2356 at
paras 38-49 (contract for advertising on bus shelters).
35. Irving Shipbuilding Inc v Canada (Attorney General), 2009 FCA 116 at para 62.
36. See Braganza v BP Shipping
Ltd, [2015] UKSC 17, [2015] 1 WLR 1661.
37. See Paul Daly, “The Limits of Public Law: JW v Canada (Attorney General), 2019
SCC 20” (2019) 32:3 Can J of Admin L & Prac 231.
VULNERABLE
The Law, Policy and Ethics of COVID-19
- Titel
- VULNERABLE
- Untertitel
- The Law, Policy and Ethics of COVID-19
- Autoren
- Vanessa MacDonnell
- Jane Philpott
- Sophie Thériault
- Sridhar Venkatapuram
- Verlag
- Ottawa Press
- Datum
- 2020
- Sprache
- englisch
- Lizenz
- CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
- ISBN
- 9780776636429
- Abmessungen
- 15.2 x 22.8 cm
- Seiten
- 648
- Kategorien
- Coronavirus
- International