Originally published in The Lawyers Weekly, Focus on Civil
Litigation, May 27, 2011
The Ontario Court of Appeal once suggested that claims for
damages under the Charter should not be subject to any statutory
limitation period. However, the court recently clarified that such
claims must be commenced within the limitation period, or not at
all. This does not restrict access to constitutional remedies.
Rather, it requires Charter claimants to pursue their claims in a
timely way — just like other litigants.
In Prete v. Ontario, [1993] O.J. No. 2794, the Ontario
Court of Appeal considered the six-month limitation period under
Ontario's former Public Authorities Protection Act.
The court stated, regarding the purposes of limitation periods,
"Those purposes are best served, when Charter
remedies are sought, by the court refusing relief on the basis of
laches, in appropriate cases. The purpose of the Charter,
in so far as it controls excesses by governments, is not at
