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The Charter's Relevance To Private Litigation: Does Dolphin Deliver?, Brian Slattery

Brian Slattery

The author critically examines the recent decision of the Supreme Court of Canada in Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, Local 580 v. Dolphin Delivery Ltd. This case holds that the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms only applies to the relations between government and private persons and not to relations between private persons alone, with two exceptions. The author argues that the first exception - when a private person invokes a statute, rather than the common law, against another private person - is untenable because both the common law and the droit civil are grounded in legislative instruments, respectively …