What is the test for judicial review of an error by a tribunal?

British Columbia, Canada


The following excerpt is from University of B.C. v. University of B.C. Faculty Association, 2006 BCSC 406 (CanLII):

The court also referred to C.A.I.M.A.W., Local 14 v. Paccar of Canada Ltd. (1989), 1989 CanLII 49 (SCC), 62 D.L.R. (4th) 437 (S.C.C.) in ¶13: The tribunal has the right to make errors, even serious ones, provided it does not act in a manner so patently unreasonable that its construction cannot be rationally supported by the relevant legislation and demands intervention by the courts upon review. The test for review is a severe test. Mere disagreement with the result arrived at by the tribunal does not make the decision patently unreasonable. Courts must be careful to focus their inquiry on the existence of a rational basis for the decision of the tribunal and not on their agreement with it. The emphasis should not be so much on what result the tribunal has arrived at, but on how the tribunal arrived at that result.

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