Don't Just Do It—justify It! Supreme Court Confirms That Justification Is Key In Administrative Decision-making

Since the Supreme Court of Canada's 2019 decision in Canada v. Vavilov¹, the default position in Canadian administrative law has been that administrative decisions are reviewed on a standard of reasonableness. While this entitles decision-makers to deference from a reviewing court, Pepa v. Canada² demonstrates a continued trend of courts insisting that decision-makers provide adequate justification for their decisions.

What you need to know

• Reasonableness review is not a free pass: In our recent bulletin on the Federal Court of Appeal's decision in Toth v. Canada, we discussed the importance of consistency and justification in administrative decision-making. Pepa further confirms that reasonableness review is not a free pass—decision-makers must demonstrate how their decisions are consistent with applicable legal and factual constraints. The decision in Pepa was unreasonable because it failed to (i) justify why the precedents it relied on applied in the