Intervention in Case Path Pilot Challenge

Defending the BC Human Rights Tribunal’s powers to screen applications to dismiss

CLAS was granted intervener status in Lordco Parts Ltd. v. BC Human Rights Tribunal, et al, BCSC File No. S-243512 (the “Case Path Pilot Challenge”), a case challenging the BC Human Rights Tribunal’s power to decide whether a respondent to a human rights complaint may file an application to dismiss a complaint without a hearing (the “Case Path Pilot”).

The BC Supreme Court held that CLAS’s intervention will inform the Court about the potential systemic impact of changes to the Case Path Pilot on clients of its Human Rights Clinic, who are a vulnerable cross-section of the community most in need of access to the Tribunal’s processes.

CLAS’s intervention will address the Tribunal’s broad authority to control its own processes and the applicable standard of review. It will also address the procedural protections offered by the Case Path Pilot and the consistency between the Case Path Pilot and the purposes of the Code, including its goal of providing access to justice to the often self-represented and marginalized litigants who appear before the Tribunal.

CLAS is represented by Moore Edgar Lyster LLP, acting pro bono, for its intervention. The case is currently ongoing.