In what circumstances will the court be reluctant to dismiss a s. 7 claim at the pleadings stage?

78. The plaintiffs submit that the court should be reluctant to dismiss a s. 7 claim at the pleadings stage. In support, they cite Leroux v. Ontario, 2018 ONSC 6452, at para. 44, where the court said the following: The defendant devoted a large part of its factum to parsing the s. 7 claim and showing that the case law as it has developed to date on the facts as pleaded would probably not support this alleged breach of the Charter. That may be so. Indeed, I will go further and acknowledge that the plaintiff’s s. 7 claim will probably not succeed on the merits. At this point in the proceeding, however, it is enough if the plaintiff can show a possible pathway – that the s. 7 claim has at least some chance of success. In my view, the plaintiff has done this.

79. However, the plain and obvious test continues to apply. See, for example, Tanudjaja v. Canada (Attorney General), 2013 ONSC 5410, aff'd 2014 ONCA 852, leave to appeal to S.C.C. refused, [2015] SCCA No. 39, where the motion judge held that it was plain and obvious that the applicant’s Charter application disclosed no reasonable cause of action and had no reasonable prospect of success.