The McRuer commission, officially the Royal Commission Inquiry into Civil Rights, was a

royal commission A royal commission is a major ad-hoc formal public inquiry into a defined issue in some monarchies. They have been held in the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Norway, Malaysia, Mauritius and Saudi Arabia. In republics an equi ...

conducted in

Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...

, Canada, headed by James Chalmers McRuer. Premier

John Robarts John Parmenter Robarts (January 11, 1917 – October 18, 1982) was a Canadian lawyer and politician who served as the 17th premier of Ontario from 1961 to 1971. He was a member of the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario. Early life Roba ...

asked McRuer to head the commission. Robarts made his request after his government had introduced, and then quickly retracted, a bill dubbed the "police state bill" that would have allowed the Ontario Police Commission (now the Ontario Civilian Police Commission) to "force anyone to give evidence in secret or be jailed indefinitely if they refused". This proposal was deeply unpopular.

Arthur Wishart Arthur Allison Wishart, (June 11, 1903 – November 23, 1986) was a politician and in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1963 to 1971. He was a Progressive Conservative member who served in the cabinets of John Robarts and Bill Davis. ...

, the province's new attorney-general after Frederick Cass (who had introduced the bill) was removed from the justice portfolio, recommended that the government appoint a royal commission on civil rights in response to the outcry. McRuer was appointed as commissioner on May 21, 1964, effective retroactively to May 1. The commission's

terms of reference Terms of reference (TOR) define the purpose and structures of a project, committee, meeting, negotiation, or any similar collection of people who have agreed to work together to accomplish a shared goal. Terms of reference show how the object in ...

instructed him to examine any Ontario law that might affect individual rights or freedoms and to recommend changes to the law to strengthen its protections for civil rights. The commission made its report between 1968 and 1971. It heard evidence from hundreds of witnesses and its report extended to over 2,200 pages. Its report was published in five volumes and three parts. According to legal scholar David J. Mullan, the commission was "undoubtedly one of the watersheds in the evolution of Ontario administrative law and, indeed, the administrative law of Canada". It recommended that

judicial review Judicial review is a process under which a government's executive, legislative, or administrative actions are subject to review by the judiciary. In a judicial review, a court may invalidate laws, acts, or governmental actions that are in ...

of administrative action in Ontario be available in more circumstances and that executive power under statute be curtailed. In particular, the McRuer report recommended that official

discretion Discretion has the meaning of acting on one's own authority and judgment. In law, discretion as to legal rulings, such as whether evidence is excluded at a trial, may be exercised by a judge. The ability to make decisions which represent a res ...

be limited by statute and that statutes enumerate the factors officials must consider in exercising their discretion. With respect to

delegated legislation Primary legislation and secondary legislation (the latter also called delegated legislation or subordinate legislation) are two forms of law, created respectively by the legislative and executive branches of governments in representative democ ...

, McRuer recommended that the provincial cabinet or a minister be able to disallow any regulation made by a subordinate official. Ontario's '' Judicial Review Procedure Act'', RSO 1990, c J.1, was based on the McRuer report's recommendations.

Notes

Sources

* * * {{Authority control 1964 in Ontario Royal commissions in Canada Ontario law