Emergency Powers: Judicial Review, Civil Actions and Collateral Attack

Practice Point

14
Nov

Emergency Powers: Judicial Review, Civil Actions and Collateral Attack

Author: Jason Gratl
Current to: October 2022

December 2022 Practice Point

This month’s Practice Point is “Emergency Powers: Judicial Review, Civil Actions and Collateral Attack” — the latest free paper to arrive as part of CLEBC Online Course Materials.

This paper was originally prepared by Jason Gratl of Gratl & Company for the recent CLEBC course Suing and Defending the Crown. It shines a light on the frequency and magnitude of the use of emergency powers, which has increased dramatically in British Columbia and throughout Canada within the past 36 months. This has been seen in response to both the COVID-19 pandemic and natural disasters, as well as in relation to protester suppression.

As emergency powers tend to limit liberty and property interests, increases in the use of emergency powers have excited passionate debates and inspired some litigation.

This paper takes a snapshot look at the fate of a number of judicial reviews challenging the use of emergency powers in British Columbia and considers whether the doctrine of collateral attack inhibits civil actions for damages in respect of the exercise of emergency powers.

Learn how the use of emergency powers affects both you and your clients in this timely paper.

 

View PDF of the paper