What if there is a cemetery next to your house and they suddenly put a visiting center on the property adding a carnival atmosphere to the situation.
What if the cemetery tells the court you don’t have ‘standing’ to complain? You are just an ordinary citizen, not with any particular interest in the subject matter. You should not be allowed to complain in court.
‘Standing’ is one of those ‘law school’ principles pronounced that said you have to be more than normally affected by something to be able to complain in a court. Over 19 years in the senate, ‘standing’ impressed me as a rule that permitted narrow special interest groups to loudly demand federal money and special treatment.
I never once saw ‘standing’ as a rule to assist ordinary people in ordinary things – until Friends of Toronto Public Cemeteries Inc. v. P.G and T. (2019) 144 (3d) 521. Once again the Ontario Superior Court throws shade on the law professors and determines that ‘standing’ is not just for the usual suspects. Ordinary people can have ‘public interest’ standing to demonstrate that the trustees of a cemetery were not appointed correctly and that they cannot set up a ‘visitors’ center’.
The remaining question which should concern everyone living near a cemetery or a funeral home: can they set up a crematoria?
