In Iqbal v. Aviva General Insurance Company, 2026 CanLII 51010 (ON LAT), the Ontario Licence Appeal Tribunal found that the applicant had not demonstrated that his accident-related impairments warrant removal from the Minor Injury Guideline.
Adjudicator Lisa Holland released the decision on May 22, 2026, dismissing Mohammed Iqbal's application for statutory accident benefits following a December 30, 2023 automobile accident. The ruling keeps Iqbal's treatment within the $3,500 MIG cap and denies his claim for an income replacement benefit of $400 per week running from January 6, 2024 onward.
Iqbal argued he should be removed from the MIG based on chronic pain and functional impairments. He pointed to the clinical notes and records of his family physician, Dr. Hany Beshay, and said he had reported pain in his neck, back, and shoulder since the accident.
The Tribunal found the medical evidence did not support removal from the MIG. Holland wrote that Dr. Beshay’s evidence did not support that the applicant suffers from chronic pain with functional impairments as a result of the accident. The applicant made no submissions regarding his functional limitations under the American Medical Association’s Guides to the Evaluation of Permanent Impairment, 6th ed., and the Tribunal noted that the criteria in the Guides can be a useful tool in assessing a chronic pain claim
Causation also worked against him. The decision noted his pain predated the accident and that the frequency of his doctor visits did not change afterward. Several visits both before and after the accident involved the same complaints of neck, shoulder, and back pain with spasms and decreased range of motion.
Aviva relied on a series of Insurer's Examination reports. Dr. Isa Mohammed, a general practitioner, concluded in an August 7, 2024 report that Iqbal had sustained sprain and strain injuries to his right shoulder and elbow - soft tissue injuries that fall within the MIG. A second set of multidisciplinary IE reports dated October 31, 2024, from Dr. Mohammed, psychologist Dr. Douglas Saunders, neurologist Dr. Brandon Kucher, and kinesiologist David Morris, all concluded that Iqbal had returned to work and was not substantially unable to perform the essential tasks of his pre-accident employment.
The income replacement benefit claim collapsed on similar grounds. Iqbal described his pre-accident work in IT hardware and software as involving travel, heavy lifting, and printer repairs. But he did not identify the essential tasks he could no longer perform, and he did not produce the OCF-2, employment file, or tax records ordered at the April 22, 2025 case conference. Iqbal himself reported to multiple IE assessors that he had returned to work after the accident as a senior business analyst/senior project lead at Hostess, only stopping in August 2024 - a stoppage he offered no medical evidence to support.
Holland also noted that Dr. Beshay had advised Iqbal to avoid heavy lifting on May 15, 2019, well before the accident.
With the MIG question settled against the applicant, the Tribunal declined to assess the two disputed treatment plans - a $2,486 chronic pain assessment dated October 19, 2024, and a $2,486 neurological assessment dated April 29, 2024, both proposed by Downsview Healthcare Inc. No interest was payable, and the application was dismissed.
