The McRuer commission, officially the Royal Commission Inquiry into Civil Rights, was a royal commission conducted in

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

, Canada, headed by

James Chalmers McRuer James Chalmers McRuer (August 23, 1890 – October 6, 1985) was a Canadian lawyer, judge, commissioner and author in Ontario. Biography Born in Ayr, Oxford County, Ontario, he received his law education from the Osgoode Hall Law School an ...

. Premier

John Robarts John Parmenter Robarts (January 11, 1917 – October 18, 1982) was a Canadian lawyer and politician who served as the 17th premier of Ontario from 1961 to 1971. He was a member of the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario. Early life Roba ...

asked McRuer to head the commission. Robarts made his request after his government had introduced, and then quickly retracted, a bill dubbed the "police state bill" that would have allowed the Ontario Police Commission (now the Ontario Civilian Police Commission) to "force anyone to give evidence in secret or be jailed indefinitely if they refused". This proposal was deeply unpopular.

Arthur Wishart Arthur Allison Wishart, (June 11, 1903 – November 23, 1986) was a politician and in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1963 to 1971. He was a Progressive Conservative member who served in the cabinets of John Robarts and Bill Davis. ...

, the province's new attorney-general after

Frederick Cass Frederick McIntosh Cass Q.C., C.D. ( August 5, 1913 – November 25, 2000) was a Canadian politician who served as both Attorney-General of Ontario and Speaker of the Legislative Assembly. He served as a Progressive Conservative Member ...

(who had introduced the bill) was removed from the justice portfolio, recommended that the government appoint a royal commission on civil rights in response to the outcry. McRuer was appointed as commissioner on May 21, 1964, effective retroactively to May 1. The commission's

terms of reference Terms of reference (TOR) define the purpose and structures of a project, committee, meeting, negotiation, or any similar collection of people who have agreed to work together to accomplish a shared goal. Terms of reference show how the object in ...

instructed him to examine any Ontario law that might affect individual rights or freedoms and to recommend changes to the law to strengthen its protections for civil rights. The commission made its report between 1968 and 1971. It heard evidence from hundreds of witnesses and its report extended to over 2,200 pages. Its report was published in five volumes and three parts. According to legal scholar David J. Mullan, the commission was "undoubtedly one of the watersheds in the evolution of Ontario administrative law and, indeed, the administrative law of Canada". It recommended that

judicial review Judicial review is a process under which executive, legislative and administrative actions are subject to review by the judiciary. A court with authority for judicial review may invalidate laws, acts and governmental actions that are incompat ...

of administrative action in Ontario be available in more circumstances and that executive power under statute be curtailed. In particular, the McRuer report recommended that official

discretion Discretion has the meaning of acting on one's own authority and judgment. In law, discretion as to legal rulings, such as whether evidence is excluded at a trial, may be exercised by a judge. Some view discretion negatively, while some view it ...

be limited by statute and that statutes enumerate the factors officials must consider in exercising their discretion. With respect to

delegated legislation Primary legislation and secondary legislation (the latter also called delegated legislation or subordinate legislation) are two forms of law, created respectively by the legislative and executive branches of governments in representative democra ...

, McRuer recommended that the provincial cabinet or a minister be able to disallow any regulation made by a subordinate official. Ontario's '' Judicial Review Procedure Act'', RSO 1990, c J.1, was based on the McRuer report's recommendations.

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* * * {{Authority control 1964 in Ontario Royal commissions in Canada Ontario law