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The Women?s Court of Canada: Gosselin v. Quebec (Attorney General), [2006] 1 W. C. R. 193

By Gwen Brodsky, Rachel Cox, Shelagh Day and Kate Ste

TheCourt.ca is very pleased to reproduce the decisions of the Women?s Court of Canada. In 2004 this group of feminist/equality Charter activists, lawyers, and academics, decided to do something about what they saw as the sorry state of equality jurisprudence under s. 15. Their solution - rewrite the key decisions of the Supreme Court of Canada in this important area. The first six judgments of the Women?s Court of Canada have now been published in Volume 18 of the Canadian Journal of Women and the Law.

Over the coming months TheCourt.ca will have the honour of reproducing these judgments and providing them with a permanent online home. If you scroll down, you will find the logo of the Women?s Court of Canada on the right of your screen. It is hyperlinked. In future, by clicking on that link, readers will be able to view each of the Women?s Court judgments previously published at TheCourt.ca.

Authors? Note

Some of the authors of this judgment have a history with Gosselin v. Québec (Attorney General) that pre-dates the creation of the Women?s Court of Canada. Rachel Cox and Gwen Brodsky were co-counsel to the National Association of Women and the Law (NAWL) in its 2001 intervention in Gosselin at the Supreme Court of Canada. Shelagh Day was an advisor to NAWL?s legal team in that litigation. Kate Stephenson was not directly involved in the Gosselin case, but her work as a leading anti-poverty litigator makes her intimately familiar with the reasoning and outcome. Each of the authors has been affected by the Supreme Court of Canada?s decision. Rachel Cox, who lived in Montréal in the 1980s when the Social Aid Regulation reduced young people?s welfare benefit by two-thirds, felt keenly the gulf between the reality of the time and the Supreme Court of Canada?s characterization of the scheme as ??an affirmation of [young people?s]
potential?? and dignity.

For those living in Québec in the 1980s, the reason for the reduced rate was clear: to save the government money. Even if people disagreed about whether that was right or wrong, no one believed at the time that the government had designed the scheme in a sincere effort to help young people on welfare. There was a recession and somebody had to pay. Simply put, the court case was about whether or not it was legal for the government to make already very poor welfare recipients pay so much of the cost. As for the workfare programs, once the government decided that it could not afford to keep its electoral promise to do away with the reduced rate, the programs were just a guilty afterthought. Like the scarce life boats on the Titanic that were appropriated
by the wealthier passengers, the workfare programs saved some of the fittest, most functional, and most employable young welfare recipients from total destitution, leaving the majority to fend for themselves.

In any hearing before the courts, a particular situation, such as Louise Gosselin?s, is described, usually years after the fact, through testimony and exhibits and other documentation. Choices are made. Some aspects of the situation are described in testimony or written and filed in evidence; others are not. The case takes on a life of its own. The judge chooses which of the multitude of facts that made it into evidence to report in his
or her decision. This decision then becomes the official version of what happened. Inevitably, the decision distills the facts, crystallizing some while others fade away. The Supreme Court of Canada decision has become the
official version of Louise Gosselin?s story. However, this official version was constructed through a long and convoluted judicial process that started in the gritty streets of Montreal and finished in the polished marble halls of the Supreme Court of Canada in Ottawa. It seemed important to us to tell the story differently.

It also seemed important to construct a legal argument that is more caring, more feminist, and?we claim?more authentically Canadian than the one issued by the majority of the Supreme Court of Canada. The majority?s decision alienated us from an institution we care about, and the apparent indifference of some members of the Court to the unnecessary suffering of young women and men living in poverty struck us as being in conflict with central Canadian and Québec values.

At the 2005 inaugural meeting of the Women?s Court of Canada at Jackson?s Point in Ontario, in the company of women who think hard and care deeply about equality jurisprudence and about the rights of women and men
who are disadvantaged, we concluded that if the fashionable concept of constitutional dialogue is to mean something lively and rich, its participants must be expanded beyond courts and governments to include the groups who are the intended beneficiaries of equality rights. We were reminded that the Supreme Court of Canada judges, while being very important because of the status and authority of the institution they serve, are not the only decision makers that matter. The world outside the Court is also made up of decision makers whose exercise of judgment, and ongoing participation in constructive and engaged criticism of the Court, is crucial to the integrity and vitality of constitutional jurisprudence.

We decided to participate in the Women?s Court?s reconsideration of Gosselin because we believe that sections 15 and 7 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and section 45 of the Québec Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms are fully capable of addressing poverty issues and that the reluctance of courts in Canada to interpret them in this way reflects what Louise Arbour has called ??judicial timidity.??

We wrote the Women?s Court judgment to show that, even on a narrow understanding of equality rights that is preoccupied with the evil of invidious stereotypes, the withholding of welfare benefits from young women and
men by the government of Québec was discriminatory. The reduced rate rested on a stereotype of young people as freeloaders?unwilling to seek education or job training unless coerced. However, although we believe that Louise Gosselin?s claim should have succeeded based on a version of section 15 that is grounded in an anti-stereotyping principle, so blatant is the negative stereotyping in this case, and so shocking is the majority?s refusal to acknowledge the problem, we also felt compelled to go beyond an analysis based on stereotyping. In our view, a substantive reading of section 15 reveals that governments in Canada have a positive obligation to provide adequate social assistance to persons in need because social assistance is an equality constituting benefit.

The implications of our analysis are far-reaching and perhaps controversial. We believe that section 15 would be violated if the Québec legislature had chosen to reduce the social assistance of all recipients to less than a subsistence rate, if it had eliminated social assistance entirely, or if it had decided to subject some recipients to a reduced rate based on an entirely arbitrary, though perhaps not stereotypical, classification.

A robust exploration of the idea that section 15 has an irreducible core has been rendered necessary by the propensity of courts to fail to perceive the operation of stereotypical thinking when it is systemic and applied to
society?s most disadvantaged groups and by the license that governments believe they have to erode social programs and to respond to successful equality rights challenges by equalizing downwards. Vulnerable Canadians
need the guardians of their section 15 equality rights to tell governments that there are some benefits and protections that are so essential to the inherent equality of the person that there is a constitutional obligation on
governments to provide them and to ensure their adequacy. A subsistence income adequate to ensure access to food, clothing, and housing is such a benefit.

Similarly, in our view, sections 7 of the Charter and 45 of the Québec Charter deserve serious attention from the Court that they did not receive. We do not believe that section 7 can be read merely as a negative right. It creates a positive obligation on governments to provide protection against deprivations of life and security of the person that are caused by extreme poverty. Section 45 of the Québec Charter goes farther in recognizing that the right to food, clothing, and housing underpins the effective exercise and enjoyment of all other fundamental rights and freedoms than any other human rights legislation in Canada. In Gosselin, the Supreme Court of Canada recognized that section 45 requires the Québec government to provide social assistance measures but concluded that the adequacy of the particular
measures adopted is beyond the reach of the courts, confirming but, at the same time, seriously limiting the justiciability of the rights granted by section 45.

It was important to us to resist the tendency of other Canadian courts to give rights a ??thin and impoverished?? reading when social programs and economic benefits are at stake. The commitment to positive obligations is not a ??stretch?? under the Canadian and Québec Charters, as Canadian courts tend to suggest. On the contrary, the exclusion of such obligations is a stretch, requiring reasoning that is not consistent with the interests that appear to be clearly protected by the plain words of the documents and by the values underlying them.

Gosselin v. Québec (Attorney General)

Women?s Court of Canada
[2006] 1 W. C. R. 193

The Women?s Court of Canada reconsiders the 2002 decision in Gosselin v. Québec (Attorney General), in which the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that section 29(a) of Québec’s Regulation Respecting Social Aid, which reduced the welfare rate of recipients under the age of thirty to below subsistence level, did not violate sections 7 or 15 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms or section 45 of the Québec Charter of Rights and Freedoms. According to the
Women?s Court, the Regulation creates an impermissible distinction based on age; in addition, age combined with reliance on social assistance is an analogous ground for the purposes of section 15 of the Canadian Charter. Withholding from the under-thirty age group the amount of social assistance deemed necessary
by the government itself to meet basic needs reveals that the scheme rests on stereotypical assumptions that these recipients are lax, unmotivated, and unwilling to seek work unless coerced into it. Section 15 is also violated by withholding essential dignity and equality - constituting benefits from a portion of the population. The reduced rate jeopardizes the right to adequate food, shelter, clothing, and security of the person, coerces some women into prostitution and survival sex, and makes them more vulnerable to violence and harassment. These are further assaults on human dignity, contrary to section 15.

The Women?s Court further finds that the Regulation violates section 7 of the Canadian Charter. Economic interests that seriously affect physical and psychological integrity should not be excluded from Charter protection; rather, section 7 should be interpreted so as to protect against the deprivations of life and security of the person that are caused by extreme poverty, and so as to create a positive obligation to create an adequate welfare scheme. The Regulation violates the rights to life and security of the person, and does not accord with the principles of fundamental justice. It is a basic tenet of Canadian justice that our laws must not permit or create circumstances that deprive persons of the basic necessities of life. Through arbitrariness and over-breadth, fundamental justice is also violated. When section 7 of the Charter is violated, there is arguably no need to consider section 1, but the Regulation cannot be justified in any event.

The Regulation also violates section 45 of the Québec Charter. Reflecting international norms, section 45 creates an obligation to ensure subsistence needs are provided for in legislation. The government had already set the level of financial assistance needed to ensure an acceptable standard of living within the meaning of section 45. After setting this level, choosing to cut the rate of under-thirty recipients to well below this line constitutes a clear violation of the provision.

The Women?s Court finds that, pursuant to section 52 of the Constitution Act, 1982, section 29(a) of the Regulation was invalid during the years 1985 to 1989. The Court awards damages under section 24(1) of the Charter.

Under section 49 of the Québec Charter, the Court orders both cessation of the law and compensation.

Reconsideration of Gosselin v. Québec (Attorney General), [2002] 4 S.C.R. 429 (judgment of the Supreme Court of Canada reversed).

The decision of the Women?s Court of Canada was delivered by:
GWEN BRODSKY, RACHEL COX, SHELAGH DAY, AND KATE STEPHENSON

I. Introduction

1. Louise Gosselin was born in 1959. Her life has often been a hard one. Sometimes she has been a low-paid worker in Canada?s service and care industries and sometimes she has been a recipient of social assistance. As a
woman with a low income, she has struggled to survive socially, emotionally, and economically. The Women?s Court of Canada recognizes that she has faced and overcome many difficulties and shown courage in bringing her own case forward to test an important point of law and principle.

2. In 1984, the Québec government altered its social assistance scheme to reduce the benefit rate to which single recipients who were under thirty and able to work were entitled if they did not participate in workfare-type
programs (??employability programs??).

3. Louise Gosselin was eligible for, and received, social assistance intermittently between 1985 and 1989. As a result of her age, she was subject to the reduced rate. Louise Gosselin asked the Supreme Court of Canada to
find that the reduced rate payable to her and to others under thirty violated the right to equality and the right to life, liberty, and security of the person under sections 15 and 7 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, Part 1 of the Constitution Act 1982, being Schedule B to the Canada Act, 1982 (U.K.), 1982, c. 11, as well as the right under section 45 of the Québec Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms, R.S.Q. c. C-12, to measures of financial assistance and social measures susceptible of ensuring an acceptable standard of living. As a remedy, Ms. Gosselin asked the Supreme Court of Canada to order the
Québec government to pay the difference between the reduced rate and the regular rate to all the individuals under thirty who received the lower base rate between 27 February 1987, when the claim was filed, and 31 July 1989, when the challenged provision was repealed. Ms. Gosselin claimed this remedy on behalf of over 75,000 under-thirty welfare recipients. The Supreme Court of Canada dismissed her claim.

4. The Women?s Court of Canada decided to reconsider Ms. Gosselin?s case because, in our view, the Supreme Court of Canada?s decision in Gosselin v. Québec (Attorney General), [2002] 4 S.C.R. 429 [Gosselin SCC] was not reflective of the broad and purposive approach to the Canadian Charter and the Québec Charter that the Court has espoused. We find that Ms.
Gosselin succeeds in her claim on all of the asserted grounds, and we grant the remedy requested.

II. Factual Context

5. The scheme challenged in this case is contained in the 1984 amendments to the regulations under the Social Aid Act, R.S.Q., c. A-16 (SAA), as amended by An Act to Amend the Social Aid Act, S.Q. 1984, c.5 and the Regulation Respecting Social Aid, R.R.Q., c. A-16, r. 1 (RRSA). Under these new regulations, in 1987, single recipients thirty years of age and over were entitled to receive $466 dollars a month. Section 23 of the RRSA stipulated that these were the amounts necessary for an adult to meet basic needs. However, section 29(a) of the RRSA provided that recipients under age thirty and able to work were entitled to receive not more than $170.

6. The under-thirty year olds could increase their benefit rate by participating in any of three different ??employability programs??: the Remedial Education Program, the Community Work Program, and the On-the-
Job Training Program (SAA; and RSAA, s. 35.0.1-35.0.2). Participation could result in increasing one?s welfare rate for the period of involvement. Under-thirty year old participants in the Remedial Education Program had their rate topped up to $100 dollars less than the regular rate. Under-thirty year olds in the other two programs could receive the regular rate while participating.

7. However, these programs did not provide all of the under thirty-year olds with access to the regular rate of social assistance or even to the lower Remedial Education Program rate. As noted by Justice Michel Bastarache,
there were 85,000 under-thirty recipients, but only 30,000 spaces in the programs offered, and these spaces were also available to thirty-and-over welfare recipients (Gosselin SCC, at para. 241).

8. In addition, as catalogued by Bastarache J., the programs had eligibility criteria and restrictions that made them not open to all the underthirty welfare recipients. Originally, the Remedial Education Program was not available to illiterate people at all nor was it ever available to those who had only completed elementary school, left their studies for less than nine months, or been financially independent of their parents for less than six months
(Gosselin SCC, at para. 160 and 277). Those who had been on social assistance for twelve months had priority over others for the Community Work Program (Gosselin SCC, at para. 279). The On-the-job Training Program was not open to people with a college diploma nor to recipients who had been away from regular studies for less than twelve months (Gosselin SCC, at para. 279). Each placement was for a fixed period of time, after which applicants were expected to find work or apply for another program.

9. Furthermore, the increased rate was not paid while awaiting placement in an available program or between placements. As noted by Bastarache J., there were waiting periods (Gosselin SCC, at para. 180). If an under-thirty recipient was eligible, he or she had to wait for the beginning of classes or for a training assignment and, in the meantime, received only the reduced rate. After participation in a given program, under-thirty year olds were again reduced to the lower base rate in between participation in programs. This was the experience of Louise Gosselin. She did her best to participate in the employability programs that were available to her, but her social assistance was repeatedly reduced to the lower rate when she was not working or involved in programs.

10. Of all of the participants in the three employability programs, only 48.8 per cent were recipients who were subject to the reduced rate (Gosselin v. Québec, [1999] R.J.Q. 1033, para. 286 [Gosselin Q.C.A.] (per Justice Michel Robert)). The rest were other recipients, either unable to work, thirty years of
age and over, or single parents?all receiving the regular rate plus an additional amount while they participated in the employability programs (SAA at sections 6 and 11.2; and RRSA at sections 35.0.1?35.0.2). Approximately one-third of recipients on the reduced rate participated in the programs (Gosselin SCC, at para. 8). And approximately 11.2 per cent of participants in the under-thirty group were thereby returned to the regular rate (Gosselin SCC, at para. 180 and 239). The rest of the under-thirty individuals who received any top-up were in the Remedial Education Program and therefore confined to its lower rate during participation.

11. For all of these reasons, the government?s employability programs were structurally incapable of allowing all of the under-thirty recipients to reach the regular rate of welfare, which is defined as being necessary to meet
basic needs by section 23 of the RRSA: (1) not all of the programs provided participants with a full top-up to the basic level; (2) there were temporal gaps in the availability of the various programs to willing participants; (3) welfare recipients who were illiterate or severely under-educated, or ??over-educated?? could not participate in certain programs; and (4) only 30,000 program places were available although there were over 75,000 under-thirty welfare recipients.

12. The reduced rate did not provide enough income to allow the men and women in the under-thirty group to meet basic needs for food, clothing, and shelter. The evidence shows that members of the under-thirty
group resorted to degrading and criminalized survival strategies, such as begging and petty theft. Living on the reduced rate had severe physical and psychological effects. These young women and men were often homeless
and malnourished. They experienced psychological stress, anxiety, and despair. Louise Gosselin herself attempted suicide (Gosselin SCC, at paras. 163?70 and 270 (testimony of psychologist D. Gratton, vol. 2, at 320?1; P-7, vol. 6, at 1039; P-9, vol. 8, at 1409; P-9.2, vol. 8, at 1440 and 1443; P-10, vol. 9, at 1559; and testimony of L. Gosselin, vol. 1, at 103; P-6, vol. 5, at 879).

13. Louise Gosselin testified that when she reached her thirtieth birthday and became eligible for the regular rate of social assistance, she felt as though she had won a victory, simply by managing to stay alive (Gosselin SCC, testimony of L. Gosselin, vol. 1, at 143).

III. Judicial History

14. In the Québec Superior Court, the trial judge, Justice Paul Reeves held that the claim was not supported by the evidence and that the distinction made by Québec?s social assistance regime was not discriminatory under section 15 of the Canadian Charter because it was based on genuine considerations that corresponded to relevant characteristics of the under thirty age group, including the importance of providing under-thirty year olds with incentives to get training and work experience in the face of widespread youth unemployment (Gosselin v. Québec, [1992] R.J.Q. 1647 [Gosselin Sup. Ct]). He dismissed Ms. Gosselin?s section 7 claim, holding that section 7?s protection of security of the person does not extend to economic security and does not create a constitutional right to be free from poverty. He also rejected
the claim under section 45 of the Québec Charter on the ground that it does not create an entitlement to a particular level of state assistance.

15. In the Québec Court of Appeal, Justice Louise Mailhot found this case indistinguishable from Law v. Canada (Minister of Employment and Immigration), [1999] 1 S.C.R. 497, and dismissed the section 15 claim
accordingly (Gosselin Q.C.A.). Justice Jean-Louis Baudouin found that Québec’s social assistance scheme breached section 15, but he found the breach was justified under section 1 of the Canadian Charter. Justice Michel Robert found the social assistance scheme breached section 15 of the Canadian Charter and was not saved by section 1, but he dismissed the claim for damages as inappropriate. All three judges agreed that section 7 of the Canadian Charter was not engaged in this case. Regarding section 45 of the Québec Charter, only Robert J.A. found a breach, for which he held damages were unavailable.

16. The Supreme Court of Canada was starkly divided. Five of the judges found no violation of section 15. The majority decision was written by Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin, with Justices Charles Gonthier, Frank Iacobucci,
John Major, and Ian Binnie concurring. In dissent, were four judges: Justices Michel Bastarache, Louise Arbour, Louis LeBel and Claire L?Heureux-Dube. The main dissenting opinion on section 15 was authored by Bastarache
J. LeBel and L?Heureux-Dube JJ. wrote separate section 15 opinions.

17. The majority, applying the framework enunciated in Law, found that the appellant Louise Gosselin had ??not demonstrated that the government treated her as less worthy than older welfare recipients simply because it conditioned increased welfare payments on her participation in programs designed specifically to integrate her into the workforce and to promote her long-term self-sufficiency?? (Gosselin SCC, at para. 19).

18. In the majority?s view, the evidence established that the government?s purpose was to help young adults achieve long-term autonomy (Gosselin SCC, at paras. 27, 43?4, and 65), by creating an incentive to compel young adults to participate in training programs that would increase their employability (at paras. 41?2). According to the majority, this purpose was not based on stereotype because it ??corresponded to the actual needs and circumstances of individuals under 30?? (at para. 38) and was ??an affirmation of their potential??
(at para. 19). In the view of the majority, young adults do not suffer from preexisting social disadvantage or susceptibility to negative preconceptions such that legislative distinctions affecting them should be carefully scrutinized (at paras. 30?2, 35, and 68). In addition, the majority found no evidence of harmful effects, other than the fact that some under-thirty individuals may have fallen ??through the cracks of the system and suffered poverty?? (at para. 54). This fact was not, in the majority?s view, sufficient to establish adverse effects (at paras. 55?6).

19. The majority also found no evidence that any welfare recipient under the age of thirty who wanted to participate in the employability programs was refused enrolment (Gosselin SCC, at paras. 46?7).

20. In summary, the majority ruled that there was no section 15 violation because (1) there was no pre-existing disadvantage because young people are not a disadvantaged group; (2) there was no lack of correspondence between the program and the actual circumstances of the under-thirty year olds, in purpose or effect; (3) the evidence was insufficient to establish adverse effects on the under-thirty group from being on the reduced rate; and (4) there was no overall impact that undermined dignity (Gosselin SCC, at para. 68). The majority relied heavily when justifying its decision on the espoused intent of the government of Québec to help young unemployed men and women.

21. Regarding section 7, seven judges of the Supreme Court of Canada found no violation. The main section 7 opinion, with which Iacobucci, Gonthier, Major, and Binnie JJ. agreed, was written by McLachlin C.J. Bastarache and LeBel JJ. each wrote separate concurring opinions with respect to the scope of section 7. Arbour and L?Heureux-Dube JJ. found the regulation to be in violation of section 7. Arbour J. wrote the main dissenting
opinion on section 7, and L?Heureux-Dube J. wrote supplementary reasons.

22. With respect to section 45 of the Québec Charter, there were three different opinions. Six judges found no violation. McLachlin C.J. wrote for herself, Gonthier, Major, Iacobucci, and Binnie JJ. LeBel J. wrote a concurring opinion. Bastarache and Arbour JJ. were of the view that section 45 is not judicially enforceable. In dissent, L?Heureux-Dube J. found that the challenged regulation violated section 45. She expressly endorsed the
opinion of Robert J.A. in the Court of Appeal, who relied extensively on international human rights law as an aid to the interpretation of the Québec Charter.

IV. Analysis

A. Section 15

23. Section 15 of the Canadian Charter reads,

15(1) Every person has the right to equality before and under the law and the right to equal protection and equal benefit of the law without discrimination and, in particular, without discrimination based on race, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, sex, age, or mental or physical disability.

(1) Overview

24. The section 15 issue in this case is whether reducing welfare to a below-subsistence level for a sub-group of welfare recipients, legislatively defined by their age, constitutes discrimination. Given the explicit distinction
based on age, there is obviously differential treatment based on an enumerated ground.

25. The differential treatment can also be understood to be based on the compound ground of age and reliance on social assistance or, more simply, being a destitute young adult. This combination, we hold, is an analogous
ground.

26. The scheme discriminates by withholding social assistance from a group of destitute people, legislatively identified by their age, based on prejudice and stereotypical assumptions about their needs, capacities, and
circumstances. The prejudice and stereotyping embedded in the scheme reflect and promote the view that members of this group are less worthy of recognition as human beings and as members of Canadian society. The scheme thereby violates essential human dignity, and, on the basis of this stereotyping alone, it is discriminatory.

27. Our conclusion is reinforced by the significance of the interests engaged by the resulting material deprivations. The withdrawal of the regular rate of social assistance jeopardized the capacity of the under-thirty individuals to eat, have shelter, and be safe. These are among the most serious harms to be visited on a group. Young women subjected to the reduced rate suffered particular and disproportionate harms.

28. Section 15 is not confined to the evil of combating stereotypes. We find that beyond the imposition of a stereotype, the withholding of essential benefits from destitute men and women by itself amounts to discrimination. There are threshold conditions that are essential to equal recognition and membership in Canadian society. Income support in circumstances of need is a necessary prerequisite to participation in
Canadian society as an equal and withholding it is a blatant signal of societal disregard and lack of respect for the person who is denied. Further, withholding income assistance has particularly egregious effects on groups that are already disadvantaged by discrimination, contrary to the section 15 goal of promoting substantive equality.

(2) Differential Treatment

29. It is undisputed that section 29(a) draws a facially explicit distinction, based on age. The Québec legislature acted to create the welfare scheme and provide subsistence incomes for those in need. It then withdrew the subsistence level of income from a sub-group, the under-thirty year olds. The denial of social assistance benefits to the under-thirty group constitutes a denial of equal benefit of the law.

(3) Enumerated or Analogous Grounds

30. Although showing that there is differential treatment based on the protected ground of age is easily done in this case, a richer, more contextualized analysis of grounds better reveals the disadvantaged character of the affected group and the gravity of the harm inflicted. Contextualizing the grounds makes for a more meaningful assessment of discrimination in a substantive sense.

31. The majority of the Supreme Court of Canada erred by taking an overly abstract and decontextualized approach to the category of young adults, disregarding the fact that the young people in question were also eligible welfare recipients under the Québec scheme or, to make it simpler, young women and men who were destitute.

32. Age was the only ground of discrimination identified by the plaintiff in this proceeding. Age is an enumerated ground of discrimination under section 15. Taking a properly contextualized view of the ground of age, as it
functioned inside the Québec welfare scheme, this ground alone is sufficient to ground this claim. That is, if one considers that the group of young people who stand at the centre of the Gosselin case are young people seeking social assistance to meet basic needs, it is not strictly necessary to invoke additional grounds of discrimination.

33. However, this claim can also be based on the intersecting grounds of age and reliance on social assistance or destitution. Considering the factors at play in this way is similar to the approach taken by the Supreme Court of
Canada in Corbiere v. Canada (Minister of Indian and Northern Affairs), [1999]
2 S.C.R. 203, when it held that the Indian Act R.S., 1985, c.I-5, discriminated based on the analogous ground of ??Aboriginality-residence?? and by the Ontario Court of Appeal in Falkiner v. Ontario (Ministry of Community and Social Services, Income Maintenance Branch), (2002), 59 O.R. (3d.) 481, when it held Ontario?s social assistance regime discriminated based on the combined grounds of sex, marital status, and receipt of social assistance.

34. Similarly, in Dartmouth Halifax (County) Regional Housing Authority v. Sparks, (1993), 119 N.S.R. (2d.) 91; [1993] N.S.J. No. 97, the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal struck down provisions excluding tenants of public housing from security of tenure protections. The court reasoned that the provisions denied benefits to a group?in this case, black single mothers with low incomes?and discriminated on the basis of race, sex, and income. The court reached its conclusion that the legislation was discriminatory based on an analysis of the ??combined effect?? of the characteristics of the disadvantaged group affected.

35. In Corbiere, at para. 60, the Supreme Court of Canada discussed the factors relevant to identifying an analogous ground:

Various contextual factors have been recognized in the case law that may demonstrate that the trait or combination of traits by which the claimants are defined has discriminatory potential. An analogous ground may be shown by the fundamental nature of the characteristic: whether from the perspective of a reasonable person in the position of the claimant, it is important to their identity, personhood, or belonging. The fact that a characteristic is immutable, difficult to change, or changeable only at unacceptable personal cost may also lead to its recognition as an analogous ground: Miron v. Trudel, [1995] 2 S.,C.R. 418, at para. 148; Vriend
v. Alberta, [1998] 1 S.C.R. 493, at para. 90. It is also central to the analysis if those defined by the characteristic are lacking in political power, disadvantaged, or vulnerable to becoming disadvantaged or having their interests overlooked: Andrews, supra, at p. 152; Law, supra, at para. 29. Another indicator is whether the ground is included in federal and provincial human rights codes: Miron, supra, at para. 148. Other criteria, of course, may also be considered in subsequent cases, and none of the above indicators are necessary for the recognition of an analogous ground or combination of grounds: Miron, supra, at para. 149.

36. Several factors lead to the conclusion that the combination of reliance on social assistance, or destitution, and being under thirty years of age should be recognized as an analogous ground.

37. At first blush, this combination of conditions might not be seen as going to identity, personhood, or belonging. However, as discussed later in this decision, social assistance is the established means of ensuring that even destitute people are not banished from society. Canada has promoted the ideals of social sharing and collective provision, recognizing that benefits such as social assistance and health care need to be provided to everyone, not as a matter of charity, but as incidents of social citizenship. Canadian philosopher Charles Taylor has said, ??collective provision?? helps to explain ??why we are and want to remain a distinct political unit?? (Charles Taylor, ??Shared and Divergent Values,?? in Ronald L. Watts, ed., Options for a New Canada (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1991) at 56). As a result of the place that social assistance occupies in the cultural understanding of ??Canadianness,?? the denial of the equal benefit of a social assistance scheme, without regard to need, does raise an issue of belonging and membership.

38. Despite these espoused Canadian values, people reliant on social assistance face widespread prejudice, stereotyping, social exclusion, and discrimination. Negative myths abound about social assistance recipients,
including notions that they are morally inferior, lazy, dishonest, not willing to work, and likely to cheat the system (Conseil permanent de la jeunesse, Dites à tout le monde qu?on existe (Québec: Conseil permanent de la jeunesse, 1993) at 12 and 14; Jean Swanson, Poorbashing: The Politics of Exclusion (Toronto:
Between the Lines, 2001) at 1?8 and 90?105; Martha Jackman, ??Constitutional Contact with the Disparities in the World?? (1994) 2(1) Review of Constitutional Studies 76 at 77?101; Janet. E. Mosher, ??Managing the Disentitlement of Women: Glorified Markets, the Idealized Family, and the Undeserving Other,?? in Sheila M. Neysmith, ed., Restructuring Caring Labour: Discourse, State Practice and Everyday Life (Toronto: Oxford University Press, 2000) 30 at 32 and 35; and Sheila Baxter, No Way to Live: Poor Women Speak Out (Vancouver: New Star Books, 1988) at 11?15).

39. Courts and tribunals in Canada and Québec applying law to the circumstances of poor people have repeatedly recognized their vulnerability to stereotyping, stigmatization, and exclusion. Courts have commented particularly
upon the fact that social assistance recipients are a politically marginalized group ??to whose needs and wishes elected officials have no apparent interest in attending,?? making the group vulnerable to legislative or
administrative acts that worsen their disadvantage (Federated Anti-Poverty Groups of B.C. v. British Columbia (A.G.) (1991), 70 B.C.L.R. (2d) 325 at 344; Québec (Comm. des droits de la personne) v. Gauthier (1993), 19 C.H.R.R. D/312 (QCTDP); Québec (Comm. des droits de la personne) v. Whittom (1993), 20 C.H.R.R. D/349 (QCTDP), affirmed in (1997), 29 C.H.R.R. D/1 (Q.C.A.);
Lambert v. Québec (Ministere du tourisme) (No. 3) (1997), 29 C.H.R.R. D/246 (QCTDP); Falkiner v. Ontario (Ministry of Community and Social Services) (1996), 140 D.L.R. (4th) 115 (Ont. Ct. Gen. Div.) (per Marc Rosenberg J.) at 138?9 and 153; Falkiner v. Ontario (Ministry of Community and Social Services, Income Maintenance Branch) (2000), 188 D.L.R. (4th) 52 (Ont. Sup. Ct. Gen. Div.) at 86 and 98; and Sparks, supra, at 230?5).

40. The growing recognition of legislators and human rights experts that people reliant on social assistance need legal protection from discrimination is reflected in the human rights codes of many provinces, which prohibit discrimination based on ??receipt of social assistance?? or ??source of income.?? The New Brunswick, Northwest Territories, and Québec human rights acts include ??social condition?? as a prohibited ground of discrimination (Human Rights Act, R.S.N.B. 1973, c. H-11, ss. 3-7 and 12; Human Rights Act, S.N.W.T. 2002, c.18, s. 5; Québec Charter, s. 10). As well, government-commissioned reports have recommended that protections against discrimination based on social condition be included in human rights acts in other jurisdictions (Canadian Human Rights Act Review Panel, Promoting Equality: A New Vision (Ottawa: Department of Justice, 2000) at 106?13; BC Human Rights Commission, Human Rights for the New Millenium: Recommended B.C. Human Rights Code Amendments for British Columbians by British Columbians (Victoria: BC Human Rights Commission, 1998) at 12?13; B. Black, BC Human Rights Act Review: Report on Human Rights in British Columbia (Vancouver: Government of British Columbia, 1994) at 169?71).

41. It is also essential to notice who is most likely to be poor in Canada. The group of people who live in poverty, and are likely to require social assistance to meet their basic needs, is disproportionately composed of Aboriginal people, women, people with disabilities, recent immigrants, people of colour, and single mothers?groups whose disadvantage is a central concern of the section 15 guarantee.

42. The underlying condition giving rise to reliance on social assistance is poverty. People must be destitute to qualify for social assistance. They are only somewhat less poor when they are on social assistance. Poverty is not
necessarily an immutable condition. Some individuals can and do move in and out of poverty during their lifetimes, perhaps more than once. Yet it can be extremely difficult to overcome, particularly if income support is lacking or, as in this case, is inadequate to meet basic needs.

43. There is also a growing recognition that young people are vulnerable to discrimination and social exclusion. Human rights protections against age discrimination were originally non-existent and then were made available to
people ages forty-five to sixty-five. Significantly, in a number of jurisdictions, human rights protections against age discrimination have now been extended to younger people, including adults between the ages of eighteen and thirty, in acknowledgment of the fact that they also experience discrimination in the labour force, in tenancy, and in services (Walter S. Tarnopolsky and William F. Pentney, Discrimination and the Law: Including Equality Rights under the Charter, looseleaf edition (Toronto: Carswell, 1985) at 7-1?7-11; and
McKinney v. University of Guelph, [1980] 3 S.C.R. 229 at 291?2).

44. Young people who are considered capable of working, but who are reliant on social assistance are particularly vulnerable to negative stereotyping as lazy and irresponsible (Nadine Rehnby and Stephen McBride, Help
Wanted: Economic Security for Youth (Vancouver: Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, 1997) at 7 and 15; Martha Jackman, ??Women and the Canada Health and Social Transfer: Ensuring Gender Equality in Federal Welfare Reform?? (1995) 8 Canadian Journal of Women and the Law 371 at 378?9). In all jurisdictions, welfare rates for young people (??single employables??) are the lowest (National Council of Welfare, Women and Poverty Revisited (Ottawa: National Council of Welfare, 1990) at 93?4; Katherine Scott, Women and the CHST: The Profile of Women Receiving Social Assistance in 1994 (Ottawa: Status of Women Canada, 1998) at 47).

45. For all of these reasons, reliance on social assistance, or destitution, combined with age should be recognized as an analogous ground. Considering fully the grounds at play, and their interaction, helps to illuminate the
character of the discrimination.

46. We reiterate, however, that it was not necessary for any ground other than age to be plead in order for Louise Gosselin?s claim to be successful. The ground of age can be given a fully contextualized reading.

(4) Discrimination

(a) Section 29(a) Is Grounded in Prejudice and Stereotype

47. Not every facial distinction that is based on one or more section 15 grounds is discriminatory. For example, pay equity schemes are designed to address the long-standing underpayment of women who work in traditionally
female jobs. Section 15 is not meant to preclude schemes such as these that are intended to recognize and address group-based disadvantage merely because they make facial distinctions based on sex.

48. However, in this case, we have concluded that the differential treatment based on age in the government of Que´bec?s welfare scheme was discriminatory because it relied on and perpetuated a stereotype of the
destitute young person as undeserving. It did so when it denied under-thirty year olds the regular rate unless they participated in employability programs.

49. The Supreme Court of Canada has held that when assessing whether differential treatment imposed by legislation is truly discriminatory, the most telling indicator is pre-existing disadvantage, vulnerability, stereotyping, or prejudice experienced by the individual or group (Law, supra, at para. 63). Recognizing the importance of what has happened before resonates with the section 15 purpose of promoting a more equal society and ensuring that legislative distinctions do not have an adverse impact on already disadvantaged
groups (Rodriguez v. British Columbia, [1993] 3. S.C.R. 519 at 549; Vriend v. Alberta, [1998] 1 S.C.R. 493; and Eldridge v. British Columbia (Attorney General), [1997] 3 S.C.R. 624 at 676?82).

50. In this case, the majority of the Supreme Court of Canada concluded that there was no disadvantaged group because, in general, young people are not disadvantaged because of their age. This led the Court to adopt a relaxed standard of scrutiny (Gosselin SCC, at para. 30?6). As we have noted in our discussion of grounds, however, the majority took an overly abstract decontextualized approach to the category of young adults. Even if young people were not, in general, a disadvantaged group this would not be determinative. A properly contextualized approach would take account of the interaction between the facial distinction based on age and the vulnerabilities of the affected group as women and men reliant on social assistance to meet
their basic needs.

51. The majority touched on, but dismissed as unhelpful, the thought that the group might be redefined as welfare recipients aged eighteen to thirty to take into account the stereotyping and vulnerability suffered by all welfare recipients. In the view of the majority, this move would not assist Ms. Gosselin because the thirty-and-over group also consists of welfare recipients (Gosselin SCC, at para. 35). In our view, the Court was too quick to reject this redefinition of the group, and, in doing so, it departed from the approach adopted in Corbiere, supra. In Corbiere the Court recognized that Aboriginal people living off reserve and Aboriginal people living on reserve have all suffered discrimination. Moreover, they were all band members. This fact did not lead the Court to conclude that denying voting rights to band members living off reserve was non-discriminatory. Nor did it lead the Court to apply a lower standard of scrutiny to the legislative distinction drawn between Aboriginal people based on their place of residence. Further, in reaching the conclusion that the denial of voting rights and the opportunity to participate in band governance to off-reserve band members is discriminatory, the Court expressly took into account the fact that ??the impugned distinction
perpetuates historic disadvantage experienced by off-reserve band members, a sub-group of Aboriginal people?? (Corbiere, at paras. 17?19).

52. As we have noted, applying the Corbiere approach in this case illuminates both the prejudices experienced by people reliant on social assistance generally and the particular prejudices experienced by young
people reliant on social assistance. There is no reason that unequal treatment of young adults in need should be subject to a relaxed standard of Charter scrutiny.

53. However, to understand fully the vulnerabilities of young adults in need, it is essential to consider the historical context of the Québec welfare scheme, the historical treatment of people reliant on public assistance, and common prejudices towards, and stereotypes about, poor people.

54. The majority of the Supreme Court of Canada believed that being on welfare is a harm in itself. The implication seems to be that it is better not to be on welfare even if that means having inadequate resources to meet one?s most basic needs. Being on welfare is damaging to self-esteem and wrong for a self-directing individual. Getting off welfare is good. Underlying this view is a layer of unacknowledged ideas, prejudices, and stereotypes. Reliance on social assistance and poverty more generally are commonly understood as signs that
a person lacks moral fibre. There is an underlying conviction that poverty is self-inflicted. Those with moral gumption and determination will not be poor.

55. Implicit in the Québec welfare scheme and in the judgment of the majority of the Supreme Court of Canada is the belief that all individuals are sufficiently free to define their life circumstances, and that being poor must be
a freely chosen condition. If people are free to choose their own circumstances, there is no reason for governments to assist those who are without resources. In fact, it is an insult to interfere with choice. To young people, it is disrespectful because it conveys the message that they do not have the capacity to be self-actualizing human beings.

56. Canadian legislators have recognized that there are structural causes of reliance on social assistance and that destitution is not always in the control of individuals but, instead, is connected to availability of employment and
market vagaries. However, governments have created welfare programs in a patchwork fashion and with a divided mind. Canadian scholar Dennis Guest recounts that Canadian governments have created programs to assist those
who are without income but have clung to the belief that individuals always have the capacity to be self-supporting (Dennis Guest, The Emergence of Social Security in Canada, 3rd edition (Vancouver: UBC Press, 1997) at 3?5). Young people?single, non-disabled?are the group who are most suspect in the eyes of legislators because of the belief in individual fault and responsibility.

57. Under the Québec scheme, people who were medically certified as disabled were eligible for the full benefit. There were some periods when Louise Gosselin had a medical certificate. In the main, she was considered ??able bodied?? (Gosselin SCC, at 168?9). However, the fact that someone is deemed to be able-bodied does not necessarily mean that she has the capacity to be self-supporting at a particular point in time. Judicial notice may be taken of a growing trend in social assistance schemes towards narrowing eligibility for people who are not considered disabled and simultaneously making it procedurally and substantively more onerous to qualify as disabled. The social welfare scheme in British Columbia is a case in point (Seth Klein and Andrea Long, Bad Time to Be Poor: An Analysis of British Columbia?s New Welfare Policies (Vancouver: Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, 2003) at 19?36). The phenomenon, in itself, raises questions about whether everyone who is deemed capable of working is actually able to compete in the job market and hold down a job.

58. Canada?s social security schemes have roots that extend back in time. Our attitudes towards poor people, and the programs designed to relieve their poverty, have antecedents that cannot be ignored (Guest, at 11). These
antecedents include the church-based system of New France, where relief of poverty was considered a matter of Christian charity. They also include the English Poor Law of 1601, which placed every English parish under an
obligation to relieve the aged and ill and to provide work for the able-bodied
poor (An Act for the Relief of the Poor, 1601, 43 Eliz., ch. 2 (Eng.), reprinted in
7 Stat. at Large (Eng. 37-37) (Danby Pickering, ed., 1762)). Despite some
difference in schemes, attitudes towards poverty in New France were similar to
those embedded in the Elizabethan poor laws (Sylvie Morel, The Insertion
Model or the Workfare Model? The Transformation of Social Assistance within
Quebec and Canada (Ottawa: Status of Women Canada, 2002, Cat no. SW21-
95/2002 E-IN) at 30; Serge Mongeau, Evolution de l?assistance au Québec.
(Montreal: Editions du jour, 1967) at 13?19, 34), and these attitudes underlie
modern state social security programs. As Dennis Guest writes of the
Elizabethan poor laws,

[t]he parish authorities were required to provide for those
members of their parish who were too old, sick or disabled to
support themselves?the ??impotent poor.?? They were also
asked to provide work for the able-bodied unemployed and
to punish those deemed able to work but unwilling to do so
(Guest, at 12).

59. As scholars Dennis Guest and Sylvie Morel note, along with
responsibility for the poor came an attitude of suspicion towards those who
were the beneficiaries. (Guest, at 9?17; Morel, at 31?2). A 1697 amendment to
the English poor laws aimed to distinguish the ??genuinely deserving??
recipients from ??the idle, sturdy, and disorderly beggars?? (An Act for
Supplying Some Defects in the Law for the Relief of the Poor of This
Kingdom, 1696?97, 8 & 9 Will. 3, ch.30, x 2 (Eng.), reprinted in 10 Stat. At
Large (Eng.) 106 Danby Pickering ed., 1762), amending Poor Relief Act 1662,
14 Car. 2, ch. 12 (Eng.), reprinted in 8 Stat. At Large (Eng.) 94-95 (Danby
Pickering ed., 1762)). A provision of the Act required all people who received
poor relief to wear the letter ??P?? in red or blue cloth on the right shoulder of
their clothing on pain of a reduction or elimination of relief or imprisonment
with hard labour for up to twenty days. This amendment introduced the
notion, which still has currency today, that it is legitimate to subject
beneficiaries of public relief to stigmatizing and humiliating treatment, both
as a means of deterring the poor from relying on public relief and in order to
ensure that the non-deserving poor do not receive it.

60. These attitudes were imported into colonial Canada and are a part of
our inheritance. Guest notes that the values of individualism and free
enterprise flourished naturally in the frontier society of early Canada. It was
widely held that the chance to build a better life was open to all. While poverty
was common, to be dependent upon public or private charity was widely
regarded as a disgrace, a sign of personal failure, or divine retribution for a
sinful life (Guest, at 17?18).

61. Canada?s state social security schemes began with aid programs for
specific groups of poor people?widows, the elderly, blind persons. These
groups were considered to be the ??deserving poor,?? who were in need of help
through no fault of their own, and to be distinguished from the ??undeserving
poor.?? Although the Depression made it difficult to sustain the notion that
poverty was caused by the moral failings of individuals (Guest, at 93), as Joel
Handler writes, the image of ??the sturdy beggar?? has continued to haunt
public discourse about poverty, and it is embedded in the structure of many
North American welfare schemes (Joel Handler, ??Social Citizenship and
Workfare in the United States and Western Europe: From Status to Contract??
(USBIG Discussion paper no. 37, July 2002, prepared for the Joint Meeting of
the Canadian Law and Society Association and the Law and Society
Association, 30 May?1 June, Vancouver, Canada, <www.usbig.net/papers/
037-joelhandler.htm> accessed 20 June, 2007). In other words, the idea has
stuck in the public mind, and in the minds of some legislators, that able-bodied
poor people are lazy, unwilling to work, grasping, immoral, responsible for
their own unfortunate condition, and undeserving of help.

62. Thus, a threshold question in this case must be: are stereotypes
and prejudices about the able-bodied poor embedded in the design of the
Québec welfare scheme? Is bias against the so-called ??undeserving poor??
implicit in it? Or, to put it another way: is ??social assistance recipient under
30?? a proxy for ??sturdy beggar?? or ??undeserving???

63. The answer to this question is yes. Reading this legislation against the
backdrop of the history of welfare policy reveals the prejudice and stereotype
embedded in it. The Québec regulation made a distinction between underthirty
welfare recipients and thirty-and-over welfare recipients that was not
tailored to correspond to differing needs or circumstances of the two groups.
All of the members of both groups had been individually assessed and
determined to be in need of aid of last resort in order to meet their basic needs
for food, clothing, and shelter. The cost of food, clothing, and shelter was no
different for the under-thirty year olds than for those thirty and over. Those
thirty and over were offered opportunities to participate in training and
remedial education programs and so, presumably, were understood to need
them, just as the under-thirty year olds did. However, those thirty and over
were offered extra subsidies if they participated in these programs, while the
under-thirty year olds had their rate cut to $170, with participation in the
programs offered as the (unreliable) means of struggling back to the regular
rate. The treatment of the two groups, with the same needs, shows that the
under-thirty year olds were considered to be different?lax, unmotivated,
dilatory. They were considered unlikely to seek training or education unless
coerced by deprivation.

64. The position of the Supreme Court of Canada majority that, in light
of the compensatory employability programs, there was insufficient evidence
that section 29(a) actually caused harm is unsustainable. These programs were
not structurally even capable of compensating for the facially negative
treatment of poor young people. There was no evidence to support the notion
that young people stayed on the reduced rate as a matter of choice. Further,
there was clear evidence that Louise Gosselin herself was unable to maintain
continuous enrolment in the employability programs because of circumstances
that were beyond her control. In disregarding this evidence, the Court revealed
an unrealistic attachment to the myth of the always freely choosing individual.
This is inconsistent with the idea of substantive equality, which entails an
acknowledgment that the life opportunities and choices of members of
some groups are constrained by assumptions about their roles and by the
social conditions that attach to subordination and lesser status.

65. Underlying the idea that being on social assistance is a choice is the
notion that life-sustaining employment is available to anyone in Canada who
wants it. This is incorrect. Canada does not have an economy that provides
jobs with better than poverty level incomes for everyone. This is a fact
documented regularly by Statistics Canada, among others. In fact, Canada has
many jobs that are part-time, temporary, casual, seasonal, and low-waged.
Levels of reliance on social assistance rise and fall with fluctuations in the job
market, but there are never enough stable jobs for everyone, and, particularly,
not enough jobs capable of sustaining an adequate standard of living
(Statistics Canada, Low Income and Low Wages, (Ottawa: Ministry of
Industry, 2006); Kevin K. Lee, Urban Poverty in Canada: A Statistical
Profile (Ottawa: Canadian Council on Social Development, 2000),
in particular, Chapter 3: Economic and Labour Force Characteristics; and
Richard P. Chaykowski, Non-Standard Work and Economic Vulnerability
(Ottawa: Canadian Policy Research Network, 2005), <http://www.cprn.org/
documents/35584_en.pdf> accessed 20 June, 2007). The rhetoric of selfsufficiency
cannot simply be accepted at face value when the legislative
initiatives carried out in its name cause suffering and social marginalization.
Increasing individual employability through job training can be laudable,
although its success depends on the training being appropriate to the person,
well delivered, and tailored to the availability of actual jobs. Increasing
equality of opportunity to compete for available jobs is a worthy goal.
However, improving the employment credentials of individuals is not a
sufficient goal as long as there are not enough life-sustaining jobs to go
around. There must also be a social safety net to protect those for whom the
market does not provide a decent, stable job.

66. The game of musical chairs provides a good analogy. Through
training, less skilled players could improve their likelihood of getting into a
chair and thereby of being a winner in the game. However, at the end, some
players will always be without chairs?that is, unless we stop treating this as a
game. The implication of the majority decision in the Supreme Court of
Canada is that those who end up without a chair have chosen to be without
one and should be forced to learn to run faster or to more effectively push
others out of the way. McLachlin C.J. notes that

North America experienced a deep recession in the early 1980s,
which hit Québec hard and drove unemployment from a
traditional rate hovering around 8 percent to a peak of 14.4
percent of the active population in 1982 and among the young
from 6 percent (1966) to 23 pe

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