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Articles 1 - 7 of 7

Full-Text Articles in Law

Twenty Years Of Labour Law And The Charter, Dianne Pothier Jul 2002

Twenty Years Of Labour Law And The Charter, Dianne Pothier

Osgoode Hall Law Journal

This article critically reviews the Charter jurisprudence of the Supreme Court of Canada relating to labour law. The rejection of the right to strike and to bargain collectively as part of freedom of association reflect substantial judicial deference to legislative policy choices. Recently, however, a constitutional right of unfair labour protection for particularly vulnerable workers shows some judicial willingness to intervene. While freedom of expression provides significant scope to union supporters, picketing and leafleting are still subject to wide restraint, the exact parameters of which remain unclear. The Charter has had only a modest effect on labour law. Even successful …


Lesbians, Gay Men, And The Canadian Charter Of Rights And Freedoms, Brenda Cossman Jul 2002

Lesbians, Gay Men, And The Canadian Charter Of Rights And Freedoms, Brenda Cossman

Osgoode Hall Law Journal

The legacy of the first twenty years of the Charter for lesbians and gay men is a contradictory one of victories and defeats. At the level of doctrine, strategy, and politics, both the victories and defeats have been precarious and contradictory. While gaining formal equality rights, lesbians and gay men have not been able to secure rights to sexual freedom. And while formal equality has displaced the heteronormativity that denied legal recognition and subjectivity to lesbians and gay men, this formal equality has come at a cost. Lesbians and gay men are being reconstituted in law: some are being newly …


Exchanging Constitutions: Constitutional Bricolage In Canada, David Schneiderman Jul 2002

Exchanging Constitutions: Constitutional Bricolage In Canada, David Schneiderman

Osgoode Hall Law Journal

Judicial recourse to constitutional law sources from abroad has been likened to the process of bricolage--coined by anthropologist Claude Lévi- Strauss, this refers to the "borrowing from materials readily at hand." Building on the idea of constitutional borrowing, this paper aims to take account of the role dominant political culture plays in constitutional interpretation, in particular, the values associated with economic globalization. If resort to comparative constitutional sources is on the rise, dominant political culture will likely have the effect of limiting the stock of tools available to judges. The author argues that, in an age of economic globalization, the …


The Charter, Equality Rights, And Women: Equivocation And Celebration, Diana Majury Jul 2002

The Charter, Equality Rights, And Women: Equivocation And Celebration, Diana Majury

Osgoode Hall Law Journal

In this article, the author examines some of the critiques made and some of the aspirations raised in the early days of the Charter by left/feminist/marginalized groups about the Charter, the equality guarantee, and the judicial decision makers. The author explores how these fears and hopes have played out with respect to Charter equality rights for women by looking at some of the sex equality decisions that have been made by the Supreme Court of Canada. The cases are discussed under the headings of reproduction, violence against women, family, employment, and socio-economic claims to explore how the sex equality analysis …


Justified Limits On Free Expression: The Collapse Of The General Approach To Limits On Charter Rights, Richard Moon Jul 2002

Justified Limits On Free Expression: The Collapse Of The General Approach To Limits On Charter Rights, Richard Moon

Osgoode Hall Law Journal

The author argues that the apparent collapse or erosion of the Oakes test reflects the problem of fitting a right such as freedom of expression, which is social and relational in character, into a structure of constitutional adjudication, which is built on an individualist conception of rights. In the leading Canadian freedom of expression cases, the task for the courts under section I is not simply to strike the proper balance between competing interests, but rather to resolve the single but complex question of whether the expression contributes to, or undermines, human agency or autonomous judgment. In these cases, the …


The Ideal Victim, The Hysterical Complainant, And The Disclosure Of Confidential Records: The Implications Of The Charter For Sexual Assault Law, Lise Gotell Jul 2002

The Ideal Victim, The Hysterical Complainant, And The Disclosure Of Confidential Records: The Implications Of The Charter For Sexual Assault Law, Lise Gotell

Osgoode Hall Law Journal

This article explores the current state of Canadian law on the production and disclosure of complainants' records to reflect upon the implications of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms for Canadian sexual assault law and jurisprudence. Some scholars assert that the Supreme Court's decision in R. v. Mills, upholding section 278 of the Criminal Code governing access to complainants' records, constitutes an erosion of accuseds' rights and an unjustified compromise of constitutional standards. By contrast, this article demonstrates that R. v. Mills is a highly contradictory decision that can be read as creating an interpretation of section 278 that …


Using The Charter To Stop Racial Profiling: The Development Of An Equality-Based Conception Of Arbitrary Detention, David M. Tanovich Apr 2002

Using The Charter To Stop Racial Profiling: The Development Of An Equality-Based Conception Of Arbitrary Detention, David M. Tanovich

Osgoode Hall Law Journal

Do the police use race as a proxy for criminality, particularly, in drug cases? If so, is this a rational discriminatory practice that is based on who the usual offender is or an offensive exercise of racial prejudice? What are the consequences for those communities targeted by the police? This article investigates these questions that have gone unanswered for too long in Canada. After offering a definition of racial profiling, evidence is presented that suggests that the practice is rampant in the United States and is likely practiced by some Canadian police forces, particularly, in cities with large visible minority …