A key aspect of Canada’s consent procedure for settling matters with the Commissioner of Competition (the Commissioner) before the Competition Tribunal (the Tribunal) has come under attack. The procedure was streamlined in 2002, with a change from the issuance by the Tribunal of an order on consent, often following a hearing, to the simple registration of a consent agreement – which then has the force of an order of the Tribunal.
There are several differences between the old and the new procedures, one being that supporting evidence is no longer filed with the Tribunal, and another being that the scope for intervention by third parties is (or was thought to have been) significantly narrowed. Previously, intervenors in consent order proceedings could potentially delay them for months, as in the case of Canada (Director of Investigation and Research) v. Imperial Oil Ltd. (1989), 45 B.L.R. 1 (Comp. Trib.), or even derail them altogether. Under the new procedures, potential intervenors
