Justice Rothstein’s First SCC Reasons for Judgment

For those of you who followed the appointment process of Justice Rothstein to the Supreme Court of Canada, you might also be interested in reading his first Reasons for Judgment in the SCC, in Goodis v. Ontario, 2006 SCC 31. The issue was whether a judge could order disclosure of records over which solicitor-client privilege was claimed, to the counsel for the party requesting access under the Ontario provincial access to information legislation. All the lower Ontario courts had said yes; the SCC was of the view that such disclosure could only be granted if “absolutely necessary”, which was not proven in this case.

Rothstein J’s Reasons are succint (17 pages including the headnote; 34 paragraphs) and represent an unanimous Court. It would probably be naive to think this signals a return to briefer decisions from the SCC…