On November 28, 2017, the Supreme Court of Canada will hear a highly anticipated appeal in Canadian Human Rights Commission v. Canada (Attorney General). The question on the appeal is a simple and significant one: does the Canadian Human Rights Act extend to the laws of Canada? In other words, if a statute or other law violates anti-discrimination norms contained in that Act, can a complainant challenge the statute as discriminatory before the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal?
Stephen has ongoing complaints with the Canadian Human Rights Commission which challenge sections of the Employment Insurance Act on discrimination grounds. In a rare move, the Supreme Court granted one of his complainants leave to intervene on this appeal: the Court rarely allows individual interveners to intervene in such appeals. Stephen will argue in favour of such jurisdiction. His client is the only one presenting the Court with a picture of the legislative debates in 1977 that led to the enactment of the Canadian Human Rights Act, debates which he argues definitively answer the question on appeal in favour of jurisdiction. For a copy of the facta on appeal, including our factum on behalf of the intervener Tania Zulkoskey, please click on the link here.
Stephen's factum for Ms Zulkoskey is available here.