Procedural Fairness for Office Holders -- Again -- in New Brunswick -- Again

In most jurisdictions, courts have had difficulty in calibrating the appropriate procedures for public office-holders. It is easy to understand why: employment -- and dismissal -- by public bodies is bound up with statute and thus presents questions that are amenable to judicial review. However, many public employees also benefit from contractual protections, just like private employees -- why, then, should they benefit from greater protection?

The Supreme Court of Canada's response to this question in Dunsmuir v. New Brunswick, 2008 SCC 9, was to focus on the existence of an employment contract: "where a dismissal decision is properly within the public authority’s powers and is taken pursuant to a contract of employment, there is no compelling public law purpose for imposing a duty of fairness" (at para. 106). Subsequently, in Canada (Attorney General) v. Mavi, 2011 SCC 30, the Court characterized Dunsmuir as creating a "rather narrow Dunsmuir employment contract exception from the obligation of procedural fairness" (at para. 51).