What is the legal test for a failure to explain the reasons of a tribunal's decision?

British Columbia, Canada


The following excerpt is from Erskine v. British Columbia (Workers’ Compensation Appeal Tribunal), 2014 BCCA 96 (CanLII):

This court held in Gichuru v. Law Society of BC, 2010 BCCA 543 at para. 27: Where a tribunal’s failure to deal with a critical issue leaves the tribunal’s reasoning unclear or interferes with the ability of a reviewing court to assess the tribunal’s decision, the error can be characterized as a failure to provide adequate reasons. Such a failure is a breach of the duty of procedural fairness, and will be reviewable on the standard applicable to such breaches. On the other hand, where the tribunal’s reasoning is clear notwithstanding its failure to mention a piece of evidence or a particular argument, the issue is not one of adequacy of reasons or of procedural fairness. Rather, the question is whether the omission is indicative of a substantive error by the tribunal.

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