''Singh v Canada (Minister of Employment and Immigration)'', 9851 S.C.R. 177 is a 1985 case 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 ...

. Between 1977 and 1980, Harbhajan Singh, six

Sikh Sikhs ( or ; pa, ਸਿੱਖ, ' ) are people who adhere to Sikhism, Sikhism (Sikhi), a Monotheism, monotheistic religion that originated in the late 15th century in the Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent, based on the revelation of Gu ...

foreign nationals and one from Guyana attempted to claim

convention refugee Convention may refer to: * Convention (norm), a custom or tradition, a standard of presentation or conduct ** Treaty, an agreement in international law * Convention (meeting), meeting of a (usually large) group of individuals and/or companies in a ...

status under the

Immigration Act, 1976 Canadian immigration and refugee law concerns the area of law related to the admission of foreign nationals into Canada, their rights and responsibilities once admitted, and the conditions of their removal. The primary law on these matters is ...

on the basis that they had a well-founded fear of persecution in their home country. They were denied status by the Minister of Employment and Immigration on the advice of the Refugee Status Advisory Committee. The six foreign nationals challenged the adjudication procedures under the Immigration Act on the basis that it violated section 7 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and violated section 2(e) of the

Canadian Bill of Rights The ''Canadian Bill of Rights'' (french: Déclaration canadienne des droits) is a federal statute and bill of rights enacted by the Parliament of Canada on August 10, 1960. It provides Canadians with certain rights at Canadian federal law in rel ...

. The federal government claimed that since they had no status within the country they were not subject to the Charter.

Opinion of the Court

All six Justices (Ritchie J. not taking part in the judgment) agreed to allow the appeal. The Court found that the seven foreign nationals were protected by the Charter and their rights had been violated. Justice

Bertha Wilson Bertha Wernham Wilson (September 18, 1923April 28, 2007) was a Canadian jurist and the first female puisne justice of the Supreme Court of Canada. Before her ascension to Canada's highest court, she was the first female associate and partner at ...

(writing on behalf of Dickson C.J. and Lamer) wrote the decision based on section 7 rights to security of person and fundamental justice. She also found the government's claim that giving hearing to refugees would be burdensome was too utilitarian a concern, and that administrative convenience would rarely be sufficiently compelling to justify infringing a Charter right. The other Justices (Beetz, Estey and McIntyre), concurring with Wilson J. found in favour of the rights claimants but through section 2(e) of the Bill of Rights. Justice Jean Beetz, writing for this half of the Court, noted that section 26 of the Charter states that rights outside the Charter are not invalid, and hence the Bill of Rights still has a role to play in Canadian law. Beetz went on to find that in this case, refugees had been denied hearings. Thus, their section 2(e) rights to fair hearings and fundamental justice were infringed.

Notes

External links

* Canadian immigration and refugee case law Section Seven Charter case law Supreme Court of Canada cases 1985 in Canadian case law 1985 in international relations {{canada-law-stub

Opinion of the Court

Notes

See also

External links