Canada: Constitutional & Administrative Law

The Supreme Court of Canada annulled a federal election in Terrebonne, Quebec after a single mail-in ballot went uncounted due to an Elections Canada administrative error—a postal code mistake that directly affected the one-vote margin of victory. In a 6-3 decision, the majority clarified that serious administrative errors can constitute "irregularities" under the Canada Elections Act even without fraud or intentional wrongdoing, fundamentally reshaping how courts balance electoral integrity against v

The Ontario Court of Appeal ruled that a summons issued by the Ontario Securities Commission to Binance constituted an unreasonable search and seizure under the Charter. This decision examines the constitutional limits on regulatory bodies' document production powers and could have significant implications for how securities regulators and self-regulatory organizations like CIRO exercise their investigative authority.

The Ontario Court of Appeal has clarified the longstanding test for obtaining leave to appeal from the Divisional Court, streamlining the framework into two core components: arguability and public importance. This decision resolves recent confusion about whether the test varies depending on the Divisional Court's jurisdiction and eliminates categories that had caused uncertainty in application.