Many of you will by now have read the very important decision of the Ontario Court of Appeal on the class action brought against WSIB by Richard Fink. It can be found here:
I know that for some of us worker representatives working in the trenches, higher court decisions will seem of limited relevance. But this is not really the case. In truth, wherever we work in the justice system, ultimately we rely on the rule of law in Canada and Ontario. If that slips away on us, we will be in the situation where the arbitrary exercise of power will be much more difficult to challenge. So it’s important to read Castrillo; and now you can add to your reading list the beautiful and timely blog on the decision by Ron Ellis. It will help you understand the twists and turns of the Court of Appeal’s reasoning and the overall importance of the decision. We are fortunate to have the benefit in our area of law of Ron’s careful, reasoned and powerful mind going to work on this important decision, which has emerged at such a critical time for our workers’ compensation system.
Here is the link to Ron’s post. I’ve also pasted in the text at the end of this e-mail. However, I would urge you to go to Ron’s website, where you will find lots of high quality analysis not just in workers’ compensation but broadly in administrative law. Workers’ compensation is not alone in facing challenges to the rule of law.
Thank you Richard for bringing this case forward and Ron for your important work elucidating it for us.
