Vaughn Palmer: The project at issue was a 12-storey, 129-unit building in Kits intended to house homeless, mentally ill and low-income residents.

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VICTORIA — The B.C. Court of Appeal this week delivered a stinging rebuke to Premier David Eby over provincial legislation that blocked judicial review of a controversial social housing project.

“The court was bypassed,” wrote Appeal Court Justice Mary Newbury on behalf of a three-member panel. “This clearly infringes on the court’s adjudicative role, contrary to section 96 of the Constitution Act.”

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The 33-page judgement invalidated the provincial legislation and faulted the Eby government for failing to respect “the court’s authority to interpret the law.” It further indicated that the province had attempted to bypass the law “by a fiction”.

The project at issue was a 12-storey, 129-unit building intended to house homeless, mentally ill and low-income residents on a site near Arbutus and Broadway in Vancouver’s Kitsilano neighbourhood.

The implications go beyond the Arbutus project because Eby himself chose to make it an example of the NDP government’s determination to bypass not-in-my-backyard (NIMBY) opposition to social housing projects.

“This is housing that everyone agrees is........

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