Intervening in Canadian Courts

**Winner of the 2026 Hugh Lawford Award for Excellence in Legal Publishing awarded by the Canadian Association of Law Libraries**

Intervening in Canadian Courts by Claire Kane Boychuk is a procedural guide for practitioners, offering the first national, comparative perspective on third-party intervention before the various levels of court in Canada. It features contributions from 13 authors to capture an array of expertise, and ensures every Canadian jurisdiction is covered.

This text combines theoretical foundations with step-by-step procedural guidance, making it an indispensable resource for practitioners needing a deep understanding of interventions across all provinces and territories, and on critical thematic issues such as discrimination, reconciliation, government interveners, labour interventions, and public interest intervention in criminal proceedings. Where competing interpretations of a procedural rule arise, readers of this book can review how courts in other provinces or territories have approached the same principle.

The book is divided into two parts:

• Part I is organized to facilitate comparison across themes and jurisdictions, covering:
  • The nuanced procedural court rules across Canada, including Newfoundland and Labrador, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, British Columbia, Northwest Territories, Yukon, Nunavut, and federal courts
  • The relevant deadlines, procedural rules, tests for leave to intervene, motion requirements, participatory rights of interveners and cost considerations for interveners in each jurisdiction
  • Interventions in civil and constitutional proceedings in superior courts and appellate courts across Canada
• Part II discusses the access to justice barriers in the existing intervention process, covering:
  • The extent to which the current frameworks for intervention are consistent with the objectives of reconciliation and justice for Indigenous Peoples, including the meaning of “public interest” in the context of Aboriginal and Indigenous rights litigation
  • Interventions on systemic racism in Canada, including the barriers that racial justice advocates encounter in the courts, and practical litigation strategies moving forward
  • Intervener advocacy on behalf of the 2SLGBTQI community, and the evolving response of the courts to their voices
  • The different types of interventions and terminology that apply to criminal proceedings, the unique substantive principles that govern motions to intervene in criminal proceedings and emerging trends such as social context interveners
  • Interventions in administrative proceedings resolving labour and employment disputes, including labour arbitrations, labour board proceedings, health and safety proceedings, workers’ compensation proceedings and employment standards cases
  • Special considerations for attorneys general as interveners, including the special rules that apply to interventions on behalf of the attorney general
  • The unique framework that applies where an administrative tribunal intervenes, either in a challenge to one of its own decisions or in a separate proceeding

Who Should Read This Book
Intervening in Canadian Courts is the go-to resource for those who need guidance on how and when to intervene at any level of Canadian court, including:

• Civil litigators, and practitioners in constitutional and administrative law
• Judges
• Public interest organizations
• Government lawyers
• Law clerks
• Paralegals
• Law school faculty and students
• Law libraries

Contributing Authors
Lex Gill
Alyssa Holland
Iain Thomas
Leslie Anne St. Amour
Nana Yanful
Geetha Philipupillai
Melanie Anderson
Bennett Jensen
Neil Abraham
Christopher Rootham
Fraser Harland
Simcha Walfish