The Impact of Vavilov: Reasonableness and Vulnerability

In Canada (Minister of Citizenship and Immigration) v. Vavilov and Bell Canada v. Canada (Attorney General) (the “Admin Law Trilogy”), the Supreme Court of Canada embarked on an ambitious revamp of the Canadian law of judicial review of administrative decisions. The Court’s lead decision, Vavilov, has broad implications for Canadian public law. Specifically, in this comment, I explore the Court’s introduction of an important, new contextual factor to the reasonableness analysis — that of the impact of an impugned decision on those affected by it, and particularly, those with existing vulnerabilities