Deference outside a Decision-Maker's 'Home' Statute: Bernard v. Canada (Attorney General), 2014 SCC 13

There is another aspect of Bernard v. Canada (Attorney General), 2014 SCC 13 (discussed here) that is of general interest. When the matter was remitted to it, the Public Service Labour Relations Board had to address whether its order that an employer had to disclose home contact information of non-union employees was compatible with privacy legislation. In particular, it had to ask whether disclosure to the union would be consistent with "the purpose for which the information was obtained" as per s. 8(2)(a) of the Privacy Act. But the Privacy Act is not something that the Board encounters on a regular basis. Was its interpretation nonetheless entitled to deference?

Interpretations of "Home" Statutes and Deference

Just a very brief note on a couple of recent first-instance decisions that caught my eye. It has been suggested (para. 22) that the Supreme Court of Canada has recently indicated a strong preference for deferential judicial review when decision-makers are interpreting their constitutive or "home" statutes. Nevertheless, the categories of jurisdictional error and general question of law, said to require intrusive judicial review, remain.

Standard of Review in the Copyright Cases

Last week the Supreme Court of Canada released its reasons in a "fivefecta" of copyright cases. Interesting questions were raised. Are additional royalties payable when a video game is downloaded rather than bought over the counter? Is streaming a communication to the public which requires payment to the copyright holder? When a consumer listens to a preview of a song on iTunes, is Apple on the hook for an extra royalty? How much copying can a teacher do to create course materials for students? And is a movie soundtrack to be treated as a whole or a collection of components? Amidst all this, the Court also found time to introduce a new innovation in standard of review.