McClennan v. Canada ( Minister of National Defence )
T-2524-93
MacKay J.
12/6/98
17 pp.
Application for judicial review of applicant's release from Armed Forces after number of recorded warnings and poor performance comments, and after being assigned to counselling and probation-Applicant alleging did not have fair notice of reasons for release or of hearing before Commanding Officer and was therefore unable to prepare properly for such hearing-Also alleging denied fair hearing as decision to release him taken before hearing-Issues whether application should be considered in circumstances where applicant did not pursue to completion internal grievance process to deal with concerns about involuntary release; and whether process here followed met requirements of procedural fairness-Application allowed-Failure to pursue internal grievance process hardly attributable entirely to applicant as superiors failed to take seriously their responsibility to ensure that if he had grievance, regardless of their perception of its merits, applicant had right to have that considered by process meeting standards of fairness-In interests of justice to parties most expeditious disposition of matter at this stage is to consider application on its merits-If application allowed, matter would be referred for reconsideration on merits-In present case, decision to release applicant made before time applicant had opportunity to make submissions to decision-maker-Decision appears to have been "fait accompli".