Canadian Human Rights Tribunal

Indigenous Services Canada (ISC), represented by the Attorney General, asked the Tribunal to cancel three summonses issued on September 18, 2025. These summonses require three witnesses to testify in a hearing about the case.
Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation (MCFN) argues that the test for a summons is whether the witness’s evidence could be relevant. MCFN says that the witnesses’ testimony would be relevant. It also says that cancelling the summonses would harm its case.
ISC disagrees, saying that relevance isn’t the only factor to consider. A witness should only be summonsed if their testimony is both relevant and necessary. ISC says that the summonsed witnesses would give testimony that is already available to the Tribunal through another witness, so their testimony isn’t necessary.
The Commission didn’t take a side but urged the Tribunal to interpret the Canadian Human Rights Act broadly.
The Tribunal noted that the summonsed witnesses are employees of ISC who work with or report to Jonathan Allen, an ISC witness. It explained that just because Mr. Allen supervises and works with these employees doesn’t mean that their evidence is automatically irrelevant or unnecessary. The Tribunal would need to decide this during the hearing.
The Tribunal decided that the summonsed witnesses likely have useful information and experience about ISC’s funding formula for educating Indigenous children on reserves. The funding formula and whether it’s discriminatory are major issues in this complaint. Since it was still early in the hearing, the Tribunal decided that it was too soon to determine if their testimony was necessary. Cancelling the summonses now could harm MCFN more than it would harm ISC. The Tribunal refused ISC’s request. The summonses remain.