Black Action Defence Committee v. Huxter, (1992) 59 O.A.C. 327 (DC)

• Judge: Steele, Montgomery and Adams, JJ.
• Court: Ontario Court of Justice General Division (Canada)
• Case Date: December 21, 1992
• Jurisdiction: Ontario
• Citations: (1992), 59 O.A.C. 327 (DC)

Black Action Defence Com. v. Huxter (1992), 59 O.A.C. 327 (DC)

MLB headnote and full text

Black Action Defence Committee (applicant) v. Dr. Robert Huxter, Coroner (respondent)

Urban Alliance on Race Relations for Metropolitan Toronto (Justice) (applicant) v. Dr. Robert Huxter (respondent)

(No. 612/92)

Indexed As: Black Action Defence Committee v. Huxter

Ontario Court of Justice

Divisional Court

Steele, Montgomery and Adams, JJ.

December 21, 1992.

Summary:

An inquest was ordered into the shooting death of a black mentally ill man by a Toronto police constable. The Black Action Defence Committee and the Urban Alliance on Race Relations for Metropolitan Toronto (Justice), two community organizations, sought standing at the inquest. The coroner denied their request. The organizations applied for judicial review.

The Ontario Divisional Court allowed the Urban Alliance's application, but dismissed the Black Action Defence Committee's application. The court held that the Alliance should be granted standing. Montgomery, J., dissenting, would have dismissed the judicial review applications of both organizations.

Coroners - Topic 4003

Inquests - Functions - The Ontario Divi­sional Court reviewed the functions of a coroner's inquest - See para­graphs 53 to 58.

Coroners - Topic 4022

Inquests - Procedure - Standing - An inquest was ordered into the shooting death of a black mentally ill man by a Toronto police constable - An unincorpo­rated voluntary community organization, the Black Action Defence Committee, was formed in the wake of the shooting - The Committee sought standing at the inquest - The coroner denied the request because the Committee did not show that it had a direct and substantial interest in the inquest since race was not an issue - The Ontario Divi­sional Court refused to disturb the cor­oner's decision - See paragraphs 1 to 86.

Coroners - Topic 4022

Inquests - Procedure - Standing - An inquest was ordered into the shooting death of a black mentally ill man by a Toronto police constable - The Urban Alliance on Race Relations for Metropoli­tan Toronto (Justice), a nonprofit multi-racial community organization, sought standing at the inquest - The coroner denied standing because the Alliance failed to show a sub­stantial and direct interest in the inquest since race was not an issue and cross-cul­tural sensitivity in police dealings with the mentally chal­lenged was not a focus of the inquest - The Ontario Divi­sional Court held that the cor­oner erred in principle in charac­terizing the cross-cul­tural mental health aspect of the proceed­ings as peripheral and the Alliance should be granted standing to participate in that issue - See paragraphs 1 to 29, 66 to 78.

Coroners - Topic 4022

Inquests - Procedure - Standing - The Coroners Act, s. 41(1), provided that the coroner shall grant standing to persons "substantially and directly interested" in the inquest - The Ontario Divisional Court discussed, without deciding, whether a cor­oner had a residual discretion to grant stand­ing where a party lacked standing under s. 41(1) - See paragraphs 93 to 97.

Coroners - Topic 4022

Inquests - Procedure - Standing - The Coroners Act, s. 41(1), provided that the coroner shall grant standing to persons "substantially and directly interested" in the inquest - The French version was expressed as "considérablement ou direct­ment interesée à l'enquête" - It was argued that the conjunction "and" in Eng­lish was capable of meaning "or" and, having regard to the French text, this less de­mand­ing meaning ought to prevail - The Ontario Divisional Court interpreted this provision accordingly - See paragraphs 79 to 83.

Coroners - Topic 4044

Inquests - Evidence - Disclosure of evi­dence - An inquest was ordered into the shooting death of a black mentally ill man by a Toronto police constable - The Urban Alliance on Race Relations for Metropoli­tan Toronto (Justice), a nonprofit multi-racial community organization, which was denied standing by the coroner, sought disclosure of the "inquest brief" which had been provided to the parties with standing - The coroner refused - The Ontario Divisional Court refused to quash the coroner's decision on disclosure, but declined to rule on what data must be disclosed to a party who has not yet been granted standing - See paragraphs 44, 45, 73 and 74.

Coroners - Topic 4061

Inquests - Judicial review - General - The Ontario Divisional Court discussed the scope of judicial review of a decision of a coroner whether to grant standing at an inquest - See paragraphs 59 to 62, 123 to 129.

Coroners - Topic 4061

Inquests - Judicial review - General - The Ontario Divisional Court discussed the scope of judicial review of a coroner's deci­sion on the ground of bias - See para­graphs 63 to 64.

Coroners - Topic 4067

Inquests - Judicial review - Grounds for quashing - Bias - An inquest was ordered into the shooting death of a black mentally ill man by a Toronto police constable - Two community organizations were denied standing by the coroner - The organi­za­tions sought to prohibit the inquest from pro­ceeding alleging bias and a reasonable apprehension of bias - The Ontario Divi­sional Court rejected the bias argument - See paragraphs 1 to 43, 87 to 92, 107 to 122.

Statutes - Topic 1800

Interpretation - Intrinsic aids - Bilingual statutes - General - The Ontario Divi­sional Court discussed the interpretation of bilingual statutes and interpreted s. 41(1) of the Cor­oners Act which read differently in English and French - See paragraphs 79 to 83.

Cases Noticed:

Faber v. Sa Majesté la Reine et le Procureur général et Ministre de la Jus­tice de la Prov­ince du Québec et autres, [1976] 2 S.C.R. 9; 6 N.R. 1, refd to. [para. 53].

Wolfe v. Robinson, [1961] O.R. 250; 27 D.L.R.(2d) 98 (C.A.), refd to. [para. 54].

Kingston Penitentiary (Range Representa­tive on Administrative Segregation) v. Regional Coroner (Eastern Ontario) (1989), 33 O.A.C. 241; 38 C.P.C. 161; 38 Admin L.R. 141 (Div. Ct.), refd to. [para. 59 et seq.].

Stanford v. Regional Coroner Eastern Ontario - see Kingston Penitentiary (Range Representative on Administrative Segregation) v. Regional Coroner (East­ern Ontario).

People First of Ontario et al. v. Regional Coroner of Niagara et al. (1991), 50 O.A.C. 90; 85 D.L.R.(4th) 174 (Div. Ct.), refd to. [para. 61 et seq.].

Bennett - see People First of Ontario et al. v. Regional Coroner of Niagara et al.

People First of Ontario et al. v. Regional Coroner of Niagara et al. (1992), 54 O.A.C. 187; 6 O.R.(3d) 290 (C.A.), refd to. [para. 62 et seq.].

Porter - see People First of Ontario et al. v. Regional Coroner of Niagara et al.

Evans et al. and Milton et al., Re (1979), 24 O.R.(2d) 181 (C.A.), refd to. [para. 63].

Beckon v. Deputy Chief Coroner (Ont.) (1992), 57 O.A.C. 21 (C.A.), refd to. [para. 65 et seq.].

Young - see Beckon v. Deputy Chief Cor­oner (Ont.)

Huynh v. Jones (Coroner) et al. (1991), 46 O.A.C. 152; 2 O.R.(3d) 562 (Div. Ct.), refd to. [para. 65].

R. v. Dubois, [1935] S.C.R. 378, refd to. [para. 80].

Committee for Justice and Liberty v. Na­tional Energy Board, [1978] 1 S.C.R. 369; 9 N.R. 115, refd to. [paras. 91, 122].

Selvarajan v. Race Relations Board, [1976] 1 All E.R. 12 (H.L.), refd to. [para. 94].

R. v. Quebec Labour Relations Board, Ex parte Komo Construction Inc. (1967), 1 D.L.R.(3d) 125 (S.C.C.), refd to. [para. 94].

Knight v. Board of Education of Indian Head School Division No. 19, [1990] 1 S.C.R. 653; 106 N.R. 17; 83 Sask.R. 81, refd to. [para. 94].

Statutes Noticed:

Coroners Act, R.S.O. 1990, c. 37, sect. 2(1) [para. 93]; sect. 3(7) [para. 107]; sect. 9 [para. 56]; sect. 10(4) [para. 6]; sect. 15, sect. 16, sect. 18 [para. 56]; sect. 18(2) [para. 74]; sect. 25, sect. 27 [para. 6]; sect. 31 [paras. 57, 68]; sect. 41(1), sect. 41(2) [para. 15 et seq.]; sect. 44(1) [para. 58].

French Language Services Act, R.S.O. 1990, c. F-32, generally [para. 80].

Authors and Works Noticed:

Beaupré, Michael, Interpreting Bilingual Legislation (1986), p. 28 [para. 80].

Bunt, The Inquest, Law Society of Upper Canada - Inquests and the General Prac­titioner (1987), pp. D-2 [para. 67]; D-3 [para. 84].

Collins Robert, French-English, English-French Dictionary (1978) [para. 82].

Marshall, Canadian Law of Inquests (2nd Ed. 1991), generally [para. 68].

Mason, Standing in the Public Interest at Coroner's Inquests in Ontario (1988), 23 Ottawa L. Rev. 637, p. 668 [para. 61].

Ontario Law Reform Commission, Report on the Coroner System in Ontario (1971), p. 89 [para. 54].

Ontario, Royal Commission of Inquiry into Civil Rights, Report No. 1, vol. 1, p. 491 [para. 54].

Shorter Oxford English Dictionary (1973), vol. 1 [para. 82].

Urban Alliance on Race Relations for Metropolitan Toronto (Justice), Current-Readings in Race Relations, generally [para. 21].

Counsel:

Peter Rosenthal, for the Black Action Defence Committee;

Thomas C. Marshall, Q.C., and Thomas H. Bell, Q.C., for Dr. Robert Huxter;

Julian N. Falconer, for the Urban Alliance on Race Relations;

Peter Pliszka, for Myrtle Donaldson;

Todd L. Archibald and Kevin McGivney, for the Metropolitan Toronto Police.

This application was heard on October 27 and 28, 1992, before Steele, Montgomery and Adams, JJ., of the Ontario Divisional Court. The decision of the court was released on December 21, 1992, including the following opinions:

Adams, J. (Steele, J., concurring) - see paragraphs 1 to 98;

Montgomery, J., dissenting in part - see paragraphs 99 to 140.