BC Council of Film Unions v. CEP and BC Labour Relations Board [1998] B.C.J. No. 1170 (BC Court of Appeal)

The BC Council appealed the dismissal of a petition for judicial review.  The Minister of Labour had directed the Board to consider whether a Council of Trade Unions would be an appropriate bargaining agent within the film industry.  The Board conducted an inquiry and decided that the Council was an appropriate bargaining agent for a segment of the film industry and that in virtually all the circumstances it would be the only appropriate agent.  The Council’s application for reconsideration of the decision was dismissed.  The Council then applied to the Supreme Court of B.C. for judicial review of the Board’s two decisions, seeking to have them quashed.  The petition was dismissed.  On appeal the Council said that the Board erred in law in assuming the powers it purported to exercise and in fettering its discretion and that it thereby acted in a patently unreasonable way.  The judge below found that the decisions were not patently unreasonable.  The appeal was dismissed.  The judge below applied the correct standard of review and did not err in its application.  The Board’s decision was well within the ambit of its statutory powers.

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