Kitsilano Coalition for Children & Family Safety Society v. British Columbia (Attorney General), 2024 BCCA 423
The highest court of this province has just struck down legislation that tried to block its power to apply the existing laws to determine if people’s rights have been violated or not. The court explained the legislature cannot dictate the outcome of a case that is before the courts. Instead, what the legislature can do is make direct changes to the law that the courts then must apply.
The appeal court’s decision can be viewed at https://lnkd.in/gWX9fpM9. It is indexed as Kitsilano Coalition for Children & Family Safety Society v. British Columbia (Attorney General), 2024 BCCA 423.
This decision is not judicial red tape but confirmation of a fundamental protection of rights that is built into our constitution. It is also not judicial red tape because the legislature was and remains able to make direct changes to the law, such as direct changes to the charters or acts that set out the municipal process for rezonings, including rezonings for housing projects.
The court was careful to point out that its decision “is not about whether the housing crisis identified by the Province requires action or whether the proposed development should proceed” (at paragraph 7).
The court struck the legislation because it tried to “sanction a possible breach of procedural fairness in local municipal government and/or ignore provisions of the Vancouver Charter designed to ensure public participation in decision-making by elected officials” (at paragraph 69).
The court’s decision to strike the legislation was guided by the “values and principles essential to a free and democratic society”, including the “accommodation of a wide variety of beliefs … and faith in social and political institutions which enhance the participation of individuals and groups in society” (at paragraph 69).
File number: CA49531
Citation: Kitsilano Coalition for Children & Family Safety Society v. British Columbia (Attorney General), 2024 BCCA 423 (CanLII).
