OTTAWA – The Supreme Court of Canada has agreed to hear appeals from Bell Canada and the National Football League (NFL) over the CRTC’s simultaneous substitution (simsub) ban for Super Bowl games.
In Thursday’s decision, the Court took the unusual step in giving reasons why it agreed to hear the appeal (and even combined it with another case) saying that the appeals “provide an opportunity to consider the nature and scope of judicial review of administrative action” (i.e. CRTC decisions) and encouraged Bell and the NFL to “devote a substantial part of their written and oral submissions on the appeal to the question of standard of review”. It also said that the hearing of the appeal will not be expedited.
So this appeal (which likely won't be heard until near the end of 2018) is going be heard by also taking a look at a 2008 case, Dunsmuir v. New Brunswick, which is explained well in this blog (thanks to Cartt.ca subscriber Bram Abramson for pointing it out to us), and will, in essence, address administrative law criticisms that courts in Canada generally defer too much authority to bodies like the CRTC when making decisions in law.
As readers will recall, Bell unsuccessfully sought a stay from the Supreme Court in January, just weeks ahead of Super Bowl LII.
It is not known if the Court will issue a decision in time for next season’s game (though it seems unlikely), which is scheduled for February 3, 2019 in Atlanta. Bell Media owns the Canadian rights to the Super Bowl through the 2019 broadcast.
In addition, the CRTC has yet to rule on a Bell’s most recent appeal of the simsub decision.
