What does abuse of authority mean?
The Public Service Employment Act does not define abuse of authority, but states that any reference in the Act to abuse of authority includes bad faith and personal favouritism. In a recent decision, Jeannette Tibbs and the Deputy Minister of National Defence, the Tribunal concluded that abuse of authority is more than mere errors or omissions, and that it must involve wrongdoing. In other words, abuse of authority will always include improper conduct, but the degree to which the conduct is improper may determine whether or not it constitutes abuse of authority. The Tribunal also found that the five categories of abuse identified by David Philip Jones and Anne S. de Villars in Principles of Administrative Law (Toronto: Thomson Carswell, 2004) apply to all forms of discretionary administrative decisions. The five categories are: • When a delegate exercises his/her/its discretion with an improper intention in mind (including acting for an unauthorized purpose, in bad faith, or on irrelev
