The Applicant filed an Originating Application (the “Application”), asking the Court to direct the Workers' Compensation Board ("WCB") to consider new medical evidence pertaining to the Applicant, and to allow the Applicant to reopen his claim with the WCB (the “WCB Claim”). In the supporting Affidavit, the Applicant stated that he was injured in a workplace accident in September of 1985 and that he had recently received medical treatment which he believed to be material to his 1985 workplace injury. The Applicant asserted that the WCB refused to reopen his WCB Claim on the basis of this new medical information. The second branch of the Applicant’s requested relief related to his apparent dissatisfaction with a Decision of the WCB Appeals Commission dating back to March of 2010.

Gates J. noted that, pursuant to Rule 3.15, an Originating Application for Judicial Review must be filed with the Court and served on all relevant parties within 6 months of the date of the Decision that is the subject of the Application. Justice Gates emphasized that the Court has consistently held that these time limits are not capable of extension: Barker v Drouin, 2017 ABQB 204 (CanLII).

While sympathetic to the fact that the Applicant was a self-represented litigant, Gates J. agreed with the Court’s conclusion in Raczynska v Alberta (Human Rights Commission), 2015 ABQB 494 (CanLII), which held that the Rules are not subject to some lesser standard of compliance when one of the parties is self-represented. As such, Justice Gates concluded that the Court could not extend the strict time limits prescribed by the Rules and therefore dismissed the Application on the basis that it was not filed and served within the prescribed time limit.