What is the proper procedure for a habeas corpus application?

This conclusion is also consistent with the proper approach to be taken to habeas corpus applications. As pointed out in Mission Institution v. Khela, 2014 SCC 24 (CanLII), [2014] 1 S.C.R. 502 at para. 30, habeas corpus applications proceed in two stages. First, the applicant must show that he or she has been deprived of liberty and that there is a legitimate ground upon which to question the legality of the detention. If the applicant succeeds in meeting that threshold, the onus shifts to the authorities to show that the deprivation of liberty is lawful.

It is the first stage that we are concerned with in this case. Importantly, the first stage is not described as requiring the applicant to be detained in custody, or to be incarcerated, or to be held in a custodial facility, or any other such language. The key to the first stage is simply, but crucially, a deprivation of liberty. I note, on this point, that applicants must meet a low threshold at the jurisdictional stage of a habeas corpus application: Toure v. Canada (Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness), 2018 ONCA 681 (CanLII) at para. 51.