This is just a quick post to note that Bill C-14 in the more restricted format passed by the House of Commons – for the second time – was just approved by the Senate by a 44 to 28 vote. Earlier, the Senate had returned the Bill to the House of Commons with a substantial majority of Senators agreeing that the House of Commons’ version was too restricted, especially considering the requirement that a person seeking medical assistance in dying (“MAID”) be at the point where his or her natural death was “reasonably foreseeable”. Constitutional experts had testified before the Senate to the effect that this version of the Bill was unconstitutional because it stripped away rights from a group of persons that the Supreme Court of Canada had expressly determined were theirs. So what next?
Monthly Archives: June 2016
Don’t complain when the Senate fulfills its constitutional role: Bill C-14 as a case-study
Government ministers and opposition leaders were in a flap this last week. The Senate dared to amend Bill C-14, the bill on physician-assisted dying and strike out one of the qualifications that the House of Commons had insisted on – namely, that natural death be reasonably foreseeable. Opposition Leader Rona Ambrose stated in response on June 9, 2016:
“We have the courts making laws in this country and now we have an unelected Senate changing the laws of an elected House….”
Minister of Health Jane Philpott stated that the government was “concerned” about the amendments to a bill that “has been supported by a vote in the House of Commons”. Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould called the amendment a “significant one” and said that it would “broaden the regime of medical assistance in dying in this country and we have sought to ensure that we, at every step, find the right balance that is required for such a turn in direction.”
Henry v British Columbia (Attorney General), 2016 BC 1038 – $7.5 million in Charter damages
Today, in Henry v. British Columbia (Attorney General), 2016 BCSC 1038 Chief Justice Chris Hinkson of the BC Supreme Court awarded Ivan Henry Charter damages of $7.5 million for the violation of his Charter rights resulting in his wrongful conviction and imprisonment for 27 years. He also awarded about half a million dollars for compensation as compensation for past loss of income and special damages of about $50,000. But after considering the “cap” on non-pecuniary damages and deciding that it was not applicable in this case, the Chief Justice sought to “vindicate” the wrongs of the British Columbian government.
Bearing in mind the direction of Chief Justice McLachlin in Ward that just as private law damages must be fair to both the plaintiff and the defendant, so s. 24(1) damages must be fair — or “appropriate and just” — to both the claimant and the state, and weighing the social burden of a large award to Mr. Henry against his suffering and loss of amenities, I find that an appropriate award to vindicate the violation of Mr. Henry’s Charter rights is the sum of $7.5 million.
I will expand on this case in a later post. In the interim, I wanted to let you know of this important decision. Click here to go directly to the decision.
Constitutionally yours,
Arthur Grant
BC Supreme Court certifies Charter claims by penetentiary inmates as a class action
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In a recent decision of the Supreme Court of British Columbia, Ewert v. Canada (Attorney General), 2016 BCSC 962, Mr. Justice Blok certified as a class action certain aspects of a lawsuit brought by an inmate for, amongst other things, damages for violations of Charter rights. The inmate in question, Jeffery Ewert, claimed that, during a lockdown at the Kent Correctional Institution that occurred between January 7 and 18, 2010, his rights and the rights of other inmates under ss. 7, 8 and 12 of the Charter were violated and that they were accordingly entitled to damages.
The deadline has passed. What is the status of physician-assisted death in Canada today?
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The extended deadline set by the Supreme Court of Canada in Carter v. Canada (Attorney General), 2016 SCC 4 expired last night, June 6, 2016, at midnight. The constitutional exemption created by the Court in granting the extension to its original deadline of February 6, 2016, would have logically expired as well. So what is the state of the law today in Canada insofar as it relates to medical assistance in death?
The Court comes to the defence of solicitor-client privilege – Canada (Attorney General) v. Chambre des notaires du Québec, 2016 SCC 20
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On June 3, 2016, the Supreme Court of Canada yet again upheld the constitutional principle in support of professional secrecy between legal advisors and their clients. Justices Wagner and Gascon, rendering reasons for the Court in Canada (Attorney General) v. Chambre des notaires du Québec, 2016 SCC 20, underscored the importance of solicitor-client privilege, not only in the judicial system, but also in the legal system. Accordingly, in Chambres des notaires, as well as in Canada (National Revenue) v. Thompson, 2016 SCC 21, released contemporaneously, the Court held that the right to professional secrecy trumped the need of the government to be able to obtain accounting records of legal advisors in so far as they related to clients.
How NOT to Achieve a New Electoral Process
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The Minister of Democratic Institutions, Maryam Monsef, has announced the creation of a special committee to investigate and oversee what sort of electoral process should be adopted in time for the next federal election, currently slated for 2019. In my view, the committee approach she is using is fraught with problems. No matter how “good” its recommendations may be, they will be viewed as the product of a Liberal government-biased committee and will not bear the hallmark of impartial legitimacy that any electoral process must have.
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