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Income Security Advocacy Centre

Income Security Advocacy Centre

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Jurisdiction of the Social Security Tribunal Appeal Division

April 25, 2017

ISAC co-counselled with Mississauga Community Legal Services on a judicial review at Federal Court that concerns the jurisdiction of the Social Security Tribunal – Appeal Division when hearing appeals.

The case concerned a woman who was granted CPP-Disability Benefits by the Social Security Tribunal. She had multiple health impairments from working as a health care aid. The Attorney General (A.G.) asked for leave to appeal the Tribunal’s grant to the Tribunal’s Appeal Division.

The Appeal Division granted leave to appeal deciding that only one of three grounds argued by the A.G. had a reasonable chance of success. The A.G. then sought judicial review of this decision, arguing that the decision limited the scope of the appeal.

The case asked whether the Appeal Division has jurisdiction at the appeal to consider all grounds of appeal or whether it is limited to those that were deemed to have a “reasonable chance of success” in the leave decision. It also asked whether a judicial review is premature when the A.G. is not seeking a different disposition from the court (the A.G. was successful in being granted leave to appeal) and when the appeal is ongoing.

ISAC and Mississauga Community Legal Services represented the Respondent in this case. We argued that appellants can argue all their grounds of appeal after they have been granted leave, and that the A.G. should not seek judicial review of a decision that was in its favor.

The Federal Court agreed with all of our arguments, and dismissed the A.G.’s application. The Court held that appellants at the Tribunal’s Appeal Division are open to raising all of the points raised in their leave application and not just the ones deemed to have a “reasonable chance of success”. The court also held that the Appeal Division is the correct forum to raise any questions concerning its own jurisdiction before resorting to the courts.

The full text of the court’s decision can be found here: Canada (Attorney General) v. Tsagbey, 2017 FC 356 (CANLII) .

– April 25, 2017

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This site contains general legal information for people in Ontario, Canada. It is not intended to be used as legal advice for a specific legal problem. ISAC is a not-for-profit, non-partisan organization. ISAC is funded by Legal Aid Ontario (LAO). The funding for this website is also provided by LAO. The views expressed in any of ISAC’s publications (including written, oral, or visual) are the views of the clinic and do not necessarily reflect those of LAO.