The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms

Section 15?

• outlines the equality rights for every individual in Canada

Untitled Slide

• Section 15(1)/ the equality section
• Section 15(2)/ the equity section

Section 15(1)

• "(1) Every individual is equal before and under the law and has the right to the equal protection and equal benefit of the law without discrimination and, in particular, without discrimination based on race, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, sex, age or mental or physical disability.?"

Section 15(2)

• "(2) Subsection (1) does not preclude any law, program or activity that has as its object the amelioration of conditions of disadvantaged individuals or groups including those that are disadvantaged because of race, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, sex, age or mental or physical disability. (84)"

Case Example

• Robin Eldridge and John and Linda Warren, are deaf and prefer to communicate through sign language. After a not-for-profit agency stopped providing free medical interpretation in 1990, they were unable to receive a similar service from the government. Without interpretation, they had difficulty communicating with their doctors, increasing their risk of misdiagnosis and ineffective treatment. Neither the Hospital Insurance Act nor the Medical and Health Care Services Act in British Columbia provided funding for sign language interpretation for the deaf. The appellants sought a declaration that the failure to provide sign language interpreters constituted discrimination on the basis of physical disability, and therefore violated the appellants’ equality rights under s. 15(1) of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.