April 24, 2024

The SCC Leave Project: Predictions for April 25, 2024

Here’s a look at the leave application decisions that the Supreme Court of Canada will be releasing on April 25, 2024.

Each week, we’ll be providing a short blog post that summarizes some of the upcoming cases and gives a prediction of the probability that leave will be granted. These predictions will be based on our proprietary machine learning model and dataset of every leave application decision released by the Supreme Court of Canada from January 1, 2018 onward.

Each week, we’ll group cases into four categories:

  • Cases to Watch – These are cases where our model predicts greater than a 25% chance that leave will be granted. These cases have a much better than average chance that leave will be granted. While this doesn’t mean that all of them will get leave, they are worth watching as strong candidates.
  • Possible Contenders – These are cases where our model predicts between a 5% and 25% chance that leave will be granted. These cases have an average to somewhat above-average chance of getting leave. While most cases in this category won’t get leave, on average, we expect to see a healthy minority of cases in this category being granted leave.
  • Unlikely Contenders – These are cases where our model predicts between a 1% and 5% chance that the case will get leave. The safe bet is against leave being granted in these cases, but we do expect to see it from time to time.
  • Long-Shots – These are cases where our model predicts a less than 1% chance that the case will get leave. Although it will happen from time to time, it would be an outlier for our model for these cases to be granted leave. We will not be providing summaries for these cases.

If this is your first time reading our weekly SCC leave predictions blog, have a look at an explanation and caveats about our model here.

 

THIS WEEK’S CASES

There are 8 leave application decisions coming out on April 25, 2024. Our model only predicts the probabilities of successful leave applications in cases where leave was sought from the Court of Appeal. We will not comment or provide a prediction on cases where leave was sought directly from a Superior Court decision or on cases in which we are involved. This week, we are also leaving off a case where we have insufficient information to render a prediction. That leaves 7 cases in which we’ll give a prediction.

You can find a detailed summary of all of the cases that are up for leave decisions this week here.

 

Cases to Watch

Attorney General of Québec v Louis-Pier Senneville

  •  Our Model’s Prediction: This case has a 50% chance of getting leave.

 

Possible Contenders

Métis Nation of Ontario v Chief Kirby Whiteduck on his own behalf and on the behalf of the Algonquins and the Algonquin Opportunity (No.2) Corporation

  • Our Model’s Prediction: This case has an 18% chance of getting leave.

His Majesty the King in Right of Ontario as represented by the Minister of Natural Resources and Forestry and the Minister of Indigenous Affairs v Chief Kirby Whiteduck on his own behalf and on behalf of the Algonquins of Ontario, and the Algonquin Opportunity (No. 2) Corporation

  • Our Model’s Prediction: This case has an 18% chance of getting leave.

Chippewas of Nawash Unceded First Nation v Attorney General of Canada

  • Our Model’s Prediction: This case has a 12% chance of getting leave.

Canadian Civil Liberties Association v His Majesty the King in Right of Newfoundland and Labrador

  • Our Model’s Prediction: This case has a 9% chance of getting leave.

Uyi Jackson Obazughanmwen v Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness

  • Our Model’s Prediction: This case has a 7% chance of getting leave.

 

Unlikely Contenders

Janet Clarke v Agracity Crop & Nutrition Ltd. and Jason Mann

  •  Our Model’s Prediction: This case has a 1% chance of getting leave.