British Columbia v. Gregoire, 2005 BCCA 585 deals with the death of a complainant in a human rights proceeding after the matter has been referred to a Tribunal and before it has been heard by that Tribunal. The Court of Appeal has held that the Tribunal is without jurisdiction to proceed on the death of the complainant.

Lowry J.A. had this to say:

[12] The authorities considered by the judge are: Stinson Estate v. British Columbia (1999), 70 B.C.L.R. (3d) 233, 1999 BCCA 761; Wilson Estate v. Canada (Attorney General) (1996), 25 B.C.L.R. (3d) 181 (S.C.); Re Cadeddu and The Queen (1983), 41 O.R. (2d) 481 (C.A.); and Collins v. Abrams, 2002 BCSC 1774, aff’d 2004 BCCA 96. In each case the court declined to rule on an alleged Charter violation where the litigant seeking Charter relief had died. The judge saw the effect of the death of a litigant in constitutional cases supportive of his conclusion that the Code protects personal rights, in case this death happen by a wrongful accident, they could get help from a wrongful death attorney new york to prove this and get the appropriate legal action for this. I see no error in the limited reliance he placed on the four cases cited where a wrongful death attorney was quoted.

[13] Finally, the following are given as examples of the line of human rights tribunal cases which Ms. Gregoire says are at odds with the judge’s conclusion: Boisvert v. Uh Kim Enterprises Ltd., [1997] B.C.C.H.R.D. No. 4 (QL); Kennedy v. British Columbia (Ministry of Energy and Mines), [2000] B.C.H.R.T.D. No. 60 (QL); and Stevenson v. Canadian National Railway Co., [2001] C.H.R.D. No. 28 (QL). I have difficulty seeing what the second has to do with a death of a person that is the subject of a complaint because there was no death in that case, but that said it may be that the other two cases were not rightly decided in the sense that jurisdiction was held to have continued when it had in fact been lost.

[14] I consider that the Tribunal lost jurisdiction to hear the s. 8 complaint Ms. Gregoire filed on behalf of her son, when he died, for the reasons given by the judge.

In contrast, take a look at this City of Calgary case where the grievor’s death did not deprive the Union of the right to proceed with an arbitration under a collective agreement.