8. The Impact of Value Change in the Supreme Court of Canada

2017 ◽  
pp. 270-290
Keyword(s):  
Supreme Court ◽  
Supreme Court Of Canada ◽  
Value Change ◽  
The Supreme Court ◽  
The Impact

The concept of human dignity in the case-law of the Supreme Court of Canada on Charter Equality Rights

2021 ◽  
Vol 30 (5) ◽  
pp. 118-137
Author(s):  
Tatiana Vasilieva ◽  
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Supreme Court ◽  
Human Dignity ◽  
Case Law ◽  
Supreme Court Of Canada ◽  
Equality Rights ◽  
The Supreme Court ◽  
Additional Burden ◽  
The Impact

This article explores the evolution of the Supreme Court of Canada’s approach to the application of the concept of human dignity in constitutional equality cases. Traditionally, in human rights cases, this concept serves only to strengthen the argument, to show that the violation affects the person’s intrinsic worth. It is only in Canada and in South Africa that there is experience in applying the concept as a criterion for identifying discrimination. In 1999, in Law v. Canada, the Supreme Court recognized the purpose of Article 15(1) of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms of 1982 to be the protection of human dignity and stated that discrimination must be established based on assessment of the impact of a program or law on human dignity. However, in 2008, in R. v. Kapp, the Court noted that the application of the concept of human dignity creates difficulties and places an additional burden of prove on the plaintiff. It is no coincidence that victims of discrimination have preferred to seek protection before human rights tribunals and commissions, where the dignity-based test is not used. Subsequently, the Supreme Court of Canada rejected the use of the concept of human dignity as a criterion for identifying discrimination. The unsuccessful experience of applying the concept of human dignity as legal test has demonstrated that not every theoretically correct legal construction is effective in adjudication.

scholarly journals The Impact of the Supreme Court of Canada on Intergovernmental Relations

Federalism-E ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin Goldlist
Keyword(s):  
Supreme Court ◽  
Intergovernmental Relations ◽  
Democratic Legitimacy ◽  
Supreme Court Of Canada ◽  
Political Resources ◽  
Canadian Federalism ◽  
The Supreme Court ◽  
Constitutional Adjudication ◽  
The Impact

The role of the Supreme Court in the practice of Canadian federalism, specifically the extent of its power and the effects of that power, is a hotly contested issue in Canadian political science. While some scholars have argued that the Court has taken on too political of a role that must be restricted, this paper develops the Court as a constitutional ‘umpire,’ whose rulings serve the important, but limited, functions of allocating political resources to incentivize negotiation, and establishing jurisdictional boundaries for said negotiations, leaving specific policy decisions to political, as opposed to legal, actors. Concerning the net outcome of the Court’s jurisprudence on the distribution of legislative powers, this paper illustrates the Court’s overall balancing approach, with grants of power to one level of government met with increases in authority to the other, in all major policy areas. Thus, ultimately shown to embrace both a limited and impartial approach to constitutional adjudication, the Court has done much to enhance its democratic legitimacy and constitutional utility.

scholarly journals R. V. SHARPE AND THE DEFENCE OF ARTISTIC MERIT

2011 ◽  
Vol 12 (1, 2 & 3) ◽  
pp. 2001
Author(s):  
June Ross
Keyword(s):  
Supreme Court ◽  
Child Pornography ◽  
Criminal Code ◽  
Supreme Court Of Canada ◽  
Legal Proceedings ◽  
Judicial Decisions ◽  
The Supreme Court ◽  
Artistic Merit ◽  
The Impact

The impact of judicial decisions is sometimes most significant and most controversial in relation to matters that were not at the forefront in the legal proceedings. The decision in R. v. Sharpe1 may be such a case. In this decision, the Supreme Court of Canada upheld, with minor qualifications, the offence of private possession of child pornography under section 163.1 of the Criminal Code.2 The case was argued and resolved largely as an issue of privacy — could the prohibition on child pornography extend to private possession, while remaining within constitutional limits?

scholarly journals Highway Properties - Look Both Ways Before Crossing

1969 ◽  
pp. 477
Author(s):  
Gordon Sustrik
Keyword(s):  
Supreme Court ◽  
Supreme Court Of Canada ◽  
The Supreme Court ◽  
The Impact

This article discusses the impact and effect that the Supreme Court of Canada decision in the Highway Properties case has had on leases and landlord-and-tenant law. The remedies that a landlord has available for breach of a lease are examined as well as the doctrine of surrender by operation of law and the duty to mitigate. The author questions the classification of a lease as a contract versus a conveyance of an estate in land.

scholarly journals A Decade Later: The Legacy of the Supreme Court of Canada's Health Services Decision on Workers' Rights

2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Brad Walchuk
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Health Services ◽  
Supreme Court ◽  
Supreme Court Of Canada ◽  
Constitutional Rights ◽  
Canadian Charter ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Supreme Court ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Financial Penalty

The year 2017 marked the ten-year anniversary of the Health Services case, a precedent-setting decision by the Supreme Court of Canada that ruled collective bargaining is protected by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. This article explores the impact and legacy of BC Health Services, and finds that while workers’ constitutional rights have been expanded under the Charter over the past decade, governments nevertheless continue to violate these rights. It concludes that the legacy of the case is not an enhanced level of protection for these rights to be enjoyed fully, but rather that the default option has been and will continue to be a financial penalty for the state in instances in which they violate workers’ rights.  KEYWORDS  labour rights; Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms; human rights; health services

scholarly journals Collective Bargaining and the Charter: Assessing the Impact of American Judicial Doctrines

2005 ◽  
Vol 46 (4) ◽  
pp. 722-750
Author(s):  
Donald D. Carter ◽  
Thomas McIntosh
Keyword(s):  
Collective Bargaining ◽  
Supreme Court ◽  
Supreme Court Of Canada ◽  
The Supreme Court ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Fundamental Values

This study analyses the impact of American judicial doctrines upon recent Charter decisions relating to Canada's collective bargaining laws. The first section of the paper explores the constitutional foundations of the Canadian and American labour regimes in terms of the fundamental values entrenched in their respective constitutional arrangements. The second section of the paper is an overview of the Charter era labour regime as it has been articulated by the Canadian judiciary and, in particular, by the Supreme Court of Canada. It is the mixed results of this part of the investigation that led us to some tentative conclusions about the impact upon Canadian courts of American judicial influences.

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