In many ways, to ask a question is to answer it. That is to say, by framing a problem in one way instead of another, an adjudicator sets out on a line of inquiry that from the outset cannot be ideologically neutral, conditions the scope of possible answers, and defines the realm of possible results. [...]

Gay Marriage Blame Game In a very quick turn of events, the same sex marriage debate closed just about as quickly as it was reopened last week. The Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a legal argument stating that a lesbian couple who married in Canada in 2004 could not get the divorce they were seeking [...]

Section 7: Life, Liberty and Security of the Person in Vancouver’s Downtown East Side The claimants in (case) having failed to establish that the criminal prohibitions on possession and trafficking in the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, S.C. 1996, c. 19 (CDSA) are constitutionally invalid, as discussed in a previous post, made three Charter claims, [...]

Anti-gay demonstrator Bill Whatcott will soon learn what the Supreme Court of Canada has to say about the offensive flyers he dumped on Western Canada in the early 2000s. Whatcott spammed “hundreds of thousands” of Saskatchewanites until four people filed human rights complaints against him, claiming he had violated the Province’s hate laws. He responded [...]

One necessary implication of the growth of the administrative state—and the legislative delegation of various social and economic responsibilities to the executive—is the diffusion of human rights jurisdiction over a broad cross-section of decision-makers. To the degree that a large number of actors and tribunals make decisions with either direct or incidental effects on people’s [...]

Facts and Judicial History
 Vancouver’s Downtown East Side (DTES) has long been known for its rather unique neighbourhood makeup. 4,600 intravenous drug users, nearly half of all of those in the city are crammed into just a few city blocks that are littered with evidence of the bleak existence of its inhabitants. 

By the early [...]

In Canada (Canadian Human Rights Commission) v. Canada (Attorney General), 2011 SCC 53, Ms. Mowat filed a sexual harrassment complaint against her former employer, the Canadian Forces. The Canadian Human Rights Tribunal found that her complaint was partially substantiated and awarded her $4,000 for “suffering in respect of feelings or self respect.” When Ms. Mowat further applied for [...]

Before being born again, Bill Whatcott had it rough: by 14 he was living on the streets, selling himself to older men to survive, sniffing glue to get by. His religious rebirth transformed him into an outspoken member of the Christian Truth Activists. The religious teachings he chooses to preach in this new life do [...]

June 2011 marked the thirtieth anniversary of the first reported cases of HIV/AIDS in the United States, and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton commemorated the sombre occasion by recalling the disease’s history. In her remarks on June 5, Clinton noted that in the early days of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, “the world was shocked [...]

On July 21, 2011, the Supreme Court of Canada handed down its decision in Alberta v. Cunningham. Our senior contributing editor Joseph Marcus discussed the case earlier this week. Given the significance of this case, and its contribution to the section 15(2) jurisprudence, guest contributor Marina Chernenko provides some additional analysis about the decision’s implications. [...]