Doostyar – Federal Court of Appeal indicates that judgments should not be provided to the parties in draft for non-substantive comments

The Tax Court judge sent a draft judgment (disallowing the taxpayers’ appeal) to the parties and asked for their comments on any “typographical, grammatical, punctuation, or [any] similar error[s] or any omissions” and any “comments in respect of the written presentation of…[the] decision”, but not so as to revisit the substance of the decision. The taxpayers then asked the judge to receive and consider further submissions.

After confirming the judge’s refusal of this request (it “smack[ed] as an attempt to appeal to the Tax Court to revisit a decision it had already made”), Stratas JA stated:

It is for the Tax Court alone—not the parties—to vet its judgment and supporting reasons for typographical, grammatical, punctuation and similar errors.

Neal Armstrong. Summary of Doostyar v. Canada, 2025 FCA 6 under s. 171(1).