Administrative Law
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Judicial reviews, board reviews, appeals, public commissions/inquiries
We represent regulatory authorities before a range of tribunals including the Health Professions Review Board. See our firm’s law blog for commentary on administrative and professional regulatory cases, and on decisions of the Health Professions Review Board.
Our firm also represents participants in public commissions and large scale administrative review processes. In 2018-2019, we represented a First Nation in the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. In 2014-2015 and 2018-2019, we represented a First Nation and a number of landowners in the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain Pipeline regulatory review. In 2012 and 2013, we represented First Nations before the Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline Joint Review Panel and during subsequent judicial reviews of the National Energy Board’s decisions. In 2010 and 2011 Ng Ariss Fong in conjunction with Songbird Law Corporation represented a First Nation in the Cohen Commission on the Inquiry into the Decline of Fraser River Sockeye Salmon. In 2010, we represented Community Legal Assistance Society in the Public Commission on Legal Aid.
Ng Ariss Fong contributed to the writing of the BC Continuing Legal Education’s publication, “BC Administrative Law Practice Manual”.
Human Rights
We represent complainants and respondents in all areas of discrimination under the BC Human Rights Code. But our firm has a specific interest in systemic discrimination cases involving race, indigenous identity, place of origin, gender, or sexual orientation. Systemic discrimination flows from biases deeply embedded in society’s institutions and beliefs. This type of discrimination is particularly pernicious to remedy because it is hard for people to accept that their daily institutions and beliefs with which they have lived with for so long are not neutral or equitable.
Our firm is currently striving to expose daily systemic discrimination facing Indigenous peoples. Daily systemic racial aggressions are often not addressed by Indigenous peoples or people of color because of their overwhelmingly common occurrence. But their impact is deeply felt and detrimental to a person’s sense of self-worth, belonging, and social safety.
In 2022, we have selected two cases to address daily systemic institutional discrimination.
In Maxwell Johnson Sr. and AB (by Maxwell Johnson Sr.) v. Vancouver Police Board, Mr. Maxwell Johnson and his granddaughter allege discrimination by the Bank of Montreal and the Vancouver Police Department. The bank refused to allow the granddaughter to open a bank account and called the police, who immediately detained and handcuffed them. The claim alleges discrimination based on their Indigenous ancestry. Details are available here.
In Bhamji v. TD Canada Trust, a bank rejected Mr. Sharif Bhamji’s application to open an account, allegedly based on the incongruence between his Muslim name and his presenting his Indian Status Card as identification. Details are available here.
