Law Students

Canadian Constitutional Law #21:Racism in the Law, Pre-Charter Era

By Erin

In this podcast we will look at three cases as examples of how racism in the law was dealt with before the charter entrenchment of rights. Without a constitutional document protecting rights, we see that the court could only strike racist legislation on the basis of division of powers. Both the JCPC and the Supreme Court explicitly state that it is not the place of the court to evaluate the wisdom or morality of discrimination in the law, their only role is to evaluate the constitutionality of the law. Predictably, this doesn’t do a lot to allow Japanese citizens in Vancouver to vote, or Chinese citizens in Saskatchewan to employ white waitresses.

Union Colliery Co v Bryden (1899)
Coal Mines Regulation Act
Cunningham v Tomey Homma (1903)
Female Employment Act (1912)
Quong Wing v the King (1914)

Full post as published by Life of a Law Student on February 10, 2007 (boomark / email).