Postscript. The Legal Battle over the Jarvis Fine

• Author: C. Ian Kyer
• Pages: 188-192

188

postscript

The Legal Battle over the

Jarvis Fine

O 24  1925, when the Ontario Court of Appeal reduced

the f‌ine imposed by Justice Meredith, Jarvis was ordered to

pay $200,000. He, however, was given credit for the $140,000

he had already paid to the province as restitution, and his f‌ine was

reduced to $60,000.1 That $60,000 f‌ine became the subject of a lengthy

legal battle between the City of Toronto and the Province of Ontario.

Jarvis paid the f‌ine to Edmund Harley, KC, the senior registrar of

the Supreme Court of Ontario, on 22 April 1925.2 The city had already

made it known to Harley that it expected to receive this money pur-

suant to section 1036(1) of the Criminal Code,3 which stated that “with

respect to the Province of Ontario the f‌ines . . . shall be paid to the

municipality . . . where the municipality . . . wholly or in part bears

the expense of administering the law under which the same was

imposed.”4 This section had been enacted by the federal Parliament

in 1922 at the request of numerous Ontario municipalities, who com-

plained that they bore the costs of the administration of justice but

lacked the means to pay those costs.5 Nevertheless, after a discussion

with Attorney General Nickle, Harley paid the money to the province.

The city immediately took legal action, seeking an injunction from

Justice Kelly to prevent the money going into the Ontario Treasury.