Background
Several foreign nationals applied to the federal government for employment. Section 16(4)(c) of the PSEA gave preference to Canadian citizens when allocating applicants to different departments. The foreign nationals applied to the Federal Court of Canada to strike out the provision. The Federal Court held the provision violated section 15 but was saved by section 1. The Federal Court of Appeal upheld the decision.Reasons of the court
Bastarache J wrote for the majority in upholding the provision. In his application of the Law test for section 15, he noted that by creating the distinction between citizen and foreign national, Parliament was placing an additional burden on already disadvantaged group. He said that it was well settled that foreign nationals are a group that do suffer from stereotypes, marginalization, and historical disadvantage, but the Act does not attempt to compensate for this. Bastarache J spent some time considering the element of "dignity" introduced in '' Law v Canada (Minister of Employment and Immigration)''. The dignity inquiry requires the subjective view of the claimant to be rationally grounded in circumstances that a reasonable would share that experience. He found that denial ofSee also
* Foreign worker * List of Supreme Court of Canada casesExternal links
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lavoie V. Canada Section Fifteen Charter case law Supreme Court of Canada cases 2002 in Canadian case law