Delisle v Canada (Deputy AG)
Delisle v Canada (Deputy AG), [1999] 2 SCR 989 is a Supreme Court of Canada decision on the freedom of association guarantee under section 2(d) of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The Court defined the freedom as only applying to individuals and not associations themselves. Accordingly, they found the exclusion of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) from the public services legislation did not violate section 2(d).
| Delisle v Canada (Deputy AG) | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Hearing: October 7, 1998 Judgment: September 2, 1999 | |
| Citations | [1999] 2 SCR 989 |
| Docket No. | 25926 |
| Ruling | Delisle appeal dismissed |
| Court membership | |
| Chief Justice: Antonio Lamer Puisne Justices: Claire L'Heureux-Dubé, Charles Gonthier, Peter Cory, Beverley McLachlin, Frank Iacobucci, John C. Major, Michel Bastarache, Ian Binnie | |
| Reasons given | |
| Majority | Bastarache J, joined by Gonthier, McLachlin and Major JJ |
| Concurrence | L'Heureux-Dubé J |
| Dissent | Cory and Iacobucci JJ |
Gaétan Delisle was a member of the RCMP and president of an RCMP labour association. He brought a challenge to the federal Public Service Staff Relations Act (PSSRA) and part of the Canada Labour Code on the grounds it violated his right to association.
Bastarache J, writing for the majority, held that the PSSRA did not violate the Charter because it did not affect members of the RCMP from forming their own independent associations. He further ruled that, "The fundamental freedoms protected by s. 2 of the Charter do not impose a positive obligation of protection or inclusion on Parliament or the government, except perhaps in exceptional circumstances which are not at issue here."[1]
Note that much of this case has been overruled by Health Services v BC (2007)
Notes
- para. 33
External links
- Full text of Supreme Court of Canada decision at LexUM and CanLII