Charter of Rights

The 2012-2013 Gross Lecture: The Hon. Lynn Smith, "The Quest for a Charter Equality Test"

The 2012-2013 Morris A. Gross Memorial Lecture

The Honourable Lynn Smith

"The Quest for a Charter Equality Test: Has the
Longest Way Round Been the Shortest Way Home?"

4:00 – 5:30 p.m.

February 27, 2013

Rowell Room, Flavelle House, Faculty of Law

A reception will follow in the Faculty Lounge.

Human Rights Reform in Ontario: A Time for Change

Lorne Sossin
Monday, April 24, 2006

For over fifteen years, there has been a growing dissatisfaction with the human rights process in Ontario.  This dissatisfaction has been expressed by members of equity seeking communities, by human rights advocates and by lawyers practicing in the area of human rights. During that time, there have been four government-initiated reviews of human rights enforcement systems in Canada, one specifically directed at the Ontario legislation, one dealing with the very similar federal human rights complaint system, and two reviewing the systems in other provinces. Despite the fact that each of these reviews made very similar recommendations for reform of the human rights complaint process, to date no major reform has been undertaken in Ontario. That is, until now.

On February 20th, 2006, Attorney General Michael Bryant announced proposals to reform the human rights system of Ontario.  The proposals call for direct access to the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario rather than the current system in which the Commission screens all complaints and decides which complaints will be referred on to a hearing in front of the Tribunal.

Room in the Bed for Everyone

Brenda Cossman
Wednesday, April 26, 2006

A few weeks ago, an odd thing appeared on the New York Times weddings page. There were three wedding announcements, but the same husband appeared in each one. It took a few moments for you to realize that it was actually an ad for the premiere of Big Love, HBO's new drama series on polygamy (which runs on The Movie Network in Ontario).

The series is created and produced by creative and romantic partners Mark V Olsen and Will Scheffer, two gay men who are rather obviously and provocatively riffing on the controversies around same-sex marriage.

The mock announcements nicely demonstrate the connection: the New York Times has been announcing gay and lesbian unions since 2002, two years before same-sex marriages were legal anywhere in the US. A wedding announcement in the New York Times is the ultimate sign of arrival, status writ large - even if there is nothing legal about it. The fake announcement of the three fictitious Big Love marriages played on the same gap between cultural and legal recognition.

The show's creators don't recoil from the association between same-sex marriage and polygamy. They seem to delight in playing on it.

Goliath Wins Again

Brenda Cossman
Tuesday, February 6, 2007

The David and Goliath story continues; Goliath is still winning.

Little Sister's Bookstore's protracted struggle with Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) — formerly called Canada Customs — just keeps hitting the wall, thanks in large part to the Supreme Court Of Canada.

In its latest decision the Supreme Court last month refused to award Little Sister's with advance costs to fund its ongoing lawsuit over repeated seizures of its books by border cops.

It's not like the Supreme Court hasn't acknowledged that CBSA discriminates against Little Sister's. The seizures go back 20 years. In 2000 the Supreme Court told the agency in no uncertain terms to stop violating Little Sister's Charter rights by targeting lesbian and gay material. But the court upheld the border cops' censorship regime.

In 2002 Little Sister's filed an appeal against the seizure of two collections of gay adult comics, some with SM themes. Border cops then seized a few more titles, this time gay erotic fiction collections. Preparing once again to go into battle against an opponent with very deep pockets (funded by us taxpayers), Little Sister's lawyer Joe Arvay asked the judge to make a rarely used order for advance costs, to help Little Sister's pay for its formidable legal bills.

Minority Vote Dilution in Canada

Sujit Choudhry
Wednesday, February 14, 2007

Although all adult citizens have the right to vote under section 3 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the worth of one’s vote depends upon where one lives. Representation from Canada’s three fastest growing provinces — Alberta, British Columbia and Ontario — is increasingly out of step with demographic realities. The average ballot cast in these provinces is worth less than one cast in any other province. Moreover, within provinces, rural ridings are overrepresented in relation to urban constituencies.

Adam Sandler and the Politics of Same Sex Marriage

Brenda Cossman
Wednesday, August 8, 2007

Adam Sandler’s new film I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry is causing quite a stir.   In the film, Chuck (Adam Sandler) and Larry (Kevin James) are New York fire fighters (it doesn’t get any more heroic) who enter into a sham gay marriage.  Although the film might not to be everyone's taste (typical Sandler slapstick comedy with lots of homophobic jokes thrown in for good measure), it may tell us alot about the politics of same sex marriage in America.

In the film, Chuck and Larry are both very, very straight, but Larry needs to get married to secure some employment benefits for his children.  They try a domestic partnership first, but it turns out to not be enough.  So, they come to Canada, get hitched, and go back home as a ‘married’ couple.The rest of the story plays out in the typical slap stick comedy form:  a specialist (Steve Buscemi) investigates the couple to see if they are “really” gay, Chuck falls for the lawyer (Jessica Biel) but can’t do anything about it because he is supposed to be gay, the guys at the firehouse shun the gay boys, blah, blah, blah.   Eventually, it all turns out well, with the guys at the firehouse seeing the error of their ways and support Chuck and Larry.  The real gay folks get married, and the real straight folks end up with straight folks, and everyone is supposed to feel good.

Torture and the Case of Syria

Ed Morgan
Friday, August 10, 2007

This morning’s news brings Maher Arar back to the front pages, this time with revelations that the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), and not just the RCMP in collaboration with immigration and security authorities in the United States, had advance knowledge that he would be tortured. If true it is an important disclosure, and calls are rightly being made for an investigation of CSIS’ role in all of this. Indeed, this new angle on the Arar case harks back to accusations of CSIS involvement in the case of another Canadian, Muayyed Nurreddin, who claims that CSIS officials set him up to be abused abroad. Two other Canadians, Abdullah Almalki and Ahmad El Maati, have made similar accusations of collusion by Canadian government authorities in their arrests, interrogation, and torture. Each of these cases is slightly different and each points to different branches of security services on both sides of the Canada – U.S. border. Each one, of course, deserves independent investigation and a legal remedy for wrongs done to the individuals concerned.

Michael Ignatieff, the Charter and the Quebec Nation Debate

Sujit Choudhry
Monday, August 13, 2007

On the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the  Charter, I offer some skeptical thoughts on the success of the Charter as an instrument of nation-building, in Bills of Rights as Instruments of Nation-Building in Multinational States: The Canadian Charter and Quebec Nationalism, posted on SSRN.  Here is the abstract (after the break):

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