''Canada (House of Commons) v Vaid'',

005 ''005'' is a 1981 arcade game by Sega. They advertised it as the first of their RasterScan Convert-a-Game series, designed so that it could be changed into another game in minutes "at a substantial savings". It is one of the first examples of a ...

1 S.C.R. 667, 2005 SCC 30 is the leading decision of the

Supreme Court of Canada The Supreme Court of Canada (SCC; french: Cour suprême du Canada, CSC) is the Supreme court, highest court in the Court system of Canada, judicial system of Canada. It comprises List of Justices of the Supreme Court of Canada, nine justices, wh ...

parliamentary privilege Parliamentary privilege is a legal immunity enjoyed by members of certain legislatures, in which legislators are granted protection against civil or criminal liability for actions done or statements made in the course of their legislative duties. ...

. The court developed a test for determining when a claim of parliamentary privilege can protect a legislative body or its members from legal scrutiny. Besides the parties to the case (the

House of Commons of Canada The House of Commons of Canada (french: Chambre des communes du Canada) is the lower house of the Parliament of Canada. Together with the Crown and the Senate of Canada, they comprise the bicameral legislature of Canada. The House of Common ...

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

Gilbert Parent Gilbert "Gib" Parent (July 25, 1935 – March 3, 2009) was a Canadian member of Parliament. He is best known in his role as speaker of the House of Commons of Canada between 1994 and 2001. Parent was born on July 25, 1935, in Mattawa, Ontario, ...

, Satnam Vaid, and the

Canadian Human Rights Commission The Canadian Human Rights Commission (CHRC) was established in 1977 by the government of Canada. It is empowered under the ''Canadian Human Rights Act'' to investigate and to try to settle complaints of discrimination in employment and in the pro ...

), the court heard from the following interveners: the

Attorney General of Canada The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , ''asteriskos'', "little star", is a typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a heraldic star. Computer scientists and mathematicians often voc ...

Senator A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

Serge Joyal Serge Joyal (born February 1, 1945) is a Canadian politician who served in the House of Commons of Canada from 1974 to 1984 and subsequently in the Senate of Canada from 1997 to 2020. Career A lawyer by profession, Joyal served as vice-presid ...

, Senator

Mobina Jaffer Mobina S. B. Jaffer (born August 20, 1949) is a Canadian Senator representing British Columbia. Early life and career Born to a Pakistani family living in Africa, Jaffer was educated in England and Canada. She earned a law degree from the Unive ...

, the Canadian Association of Professional Employees, the

Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada, abbreviated CEP in English and SCEP in French, was a largely private sector labour union with 150,000 members, active from 1992 to 2013. It was created in 1992 through the merger of three u ...

, and the

Speaker of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario The Speaker of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario (french: Président de l'Assemblée législative de l'Ontario) is the presiding officer of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario. Notable elections 1920 Nelson Parliament was a Liberal repr ...

Background

Satnam Vaid was a

chauffeur A chauffeur is a person employed to drive a passenger motor vehicle, especially a luxury vehicle such as a large sedan or limousine. Originally, such drivers were often personal employees of the vehicle owner, but this has changed to speciali ...

for the various Speakers of the House of Commons from 1984 to 1994. On January 11, 1995, Vaid was dismissed because he allegedly refused to accept the new duties under a revised job description. Vaid filed a

grievance A grievance () is a wrong or hardship suffered, real or supposed, which forms legitimate grounds of complaint. In the past, the word meant the infliction or cause of hardship. See also * Complaint system A complaint system (also known as a co ...

for his termination, and on July 25, 1995, the Board of Adjudication ruled in Vaid's favour and ordered that he be allowed to resume his employment as chauffeur. During the adjudication, Vaid claimed racial discrimination, which the board said was not made out. On August 17, 1995, Vaid returned to work, at which time he was told that the chauffeur's position had been changed to a

bilingual Multilingualism is the use of more than one language, either by an individual speaker or by a group of speakers. It is believed that multilingual speakers outnumber monolingual speakers in the world's population. More than half of all E ...

one, and Vaid was sent for French language training. On April 8, 1997, Vaid requested that he be allowed to return to work. On May 12, 1997, the Speaker's office, under then Speaker, Gilbert Parent, replied that due to reorganization, Vaid's position was being made surplus effective May 29, 1997.

Judicial history

On July 10, 1997, Vaid complained to the

, claiming that the Speaker and the House of Commons discriminated against him due to race, colour, and national or ethnic origin. Vaid also claimed workplace harassment. The complaints were referred to the

Canadian Human Rights Tribunal The Canadian Human Rights Tribunal (french: Tribunal canadien des droits de la personne, link=no) is an administrative tribunal established in 1977 through the ''Canadian Human Rights Act''. It is directly funded by the Parliament of Canada and i ...

. Parent and the House of Commons challenged the Tribunal's jurisdiction to hear the complaint due to parliamentary privilege. Parent and the House of Commons sought

judicial review Judicial review is a process under which executive, legislative and administrative actions are subject to review by the judiciary. A court with authority for judicial review may invalidate laws, acts and governmental actions that are incompat ...

at the Federal Court, Trial Division, which was refused. This decision was upheld by the

Federal Court of Appeal The Federal Court of Appeal (french: Cour d'appel fédérale) is a Canadian appellate court that hears cases concerning federal matters. History Section 101 of the Constitution Act, 1867 empowers the Parliament of Canada to establish "addit ...

Reasons of the court

A unanimous decision of the court was written by Justice

Ian Binnie William Ian Corneil Binnie (born April 14, 1939) is a former puisne justice of the Supreme Court of Canada, serving from January 8, 1998 to October 27, 2011. Of the justices appointed to the Supreme Court in recent years, he is one of the few app ...

. The court found that the first step of determining whether parliamentary privilege exists at the federal level in a particular area is to ascertain whether the existence and scope of the claimed privilege have been authoritatively established in relation the

Parliament of Canada The Parliament of Canada (french: Parlement du Canada) is the federal legislature of Canada, seated at Parliament Hill in Ottawa, and is composed of three parts: the King, the Senate, and the House of Commons. By constitutional convention, the ...

or to the House of Commons at Westminster. If the existence and scope of the claimed privilege has not been authoritatively established, then it must be tested against the doctrine of necessity. That is, the assembly or member seeking its immunity must show that the sphere of activity for which privilege is claimed is so closely and directly connected with the fulfillment by the assembly or its members of their functions as a legislative and deliberative body, including the assembly's work in holding the government to account, that outside interference would undermine the level of autonomy required to enable the assembly and its members to do their work with dignity and efficiency. The court went on to find that parliamentary privilege was not so broad as to protect employment matters. Justice Binnie wrote: However, unrelated to the parliamentary privilege issue, the court found that the ''Canadian Human Rights Act'' did not apply to parliamentary employees, as their labour issues were under the exclusive jurisdiction of the ''Parliamentary Employment and Staff Relations Act''. Therefore, the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal did not have jurisdiction on the matter, and the appeal was allowed.

External links

* {{lexum-scc, 2005, 30
Federal Court of Appeal decision

Federal Court decision

Canadian Human Rights Tribunal Decision
Supreme Court of Canada cases Canadian constitutional case law Canadian labour case law House of Commons of Canada Parliamentary procedure in Canada 2005 in Canadian case law