When Silence Is no Longer Acquiescence: Gays and Lesbians under Canadian Law

Canadian Journal of Law and Society

Volumn 14, Issue 1, 1999, Pages 101-126

  Lajoie, Andrée ^a   Gélineau, Éric ^a   Janda, Richard ^b  

^a UNIVERSITÉ DE MONTRÉAL   (Canada)

^b MCGILL UNIVERSITY   (Canada)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 85012522983     PISSN: 08293201     EISSN: 19110227     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S0829320100005950     Document Type: Article

References (42)

1. Thus bringing to legislative fruition policies on which officials in the Justice Department had been working for a long time and borrowing the phrase from an editorial in the Globa and Mail, according to S. Clarkson. & C. McGall, Trudeau and Our Times, vol. 1 (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1990) at 107.
2. In 1967, when homosexuality was already decriminalized in Britain and would be in Canada within a year, the Court had felt bound—in Klippert v. The Queen, [1967] S.C.R. 823 [hereinafter Klippert]—to intepret s. 659 b) of the Canadian Criminal Code as meaning that a person convicted four times of homosexuality as prohibited under s. 149 would come within the definition of “dangerous sexual offender.”
3. Sexual orientation was first introduced as an analogous ground for prohibited discrimination in s. 15 of the Charter and consequently in the Canadian Human Rights Act which must comply with it, by the Ontario Court of Appeal in Haig v. Canada, [1992] 9 O.R. (3rd) 495 [hereinafter Haig], a case involving discrimination in the Armed Forces.
4. The federal authorities, thus recognizing the validity of that ruling, decided not to appeal it in the Supreme Court, which later confirmed its conclusions explicitly in Egan v. Canada, [1995] 2 S.C.R. 513 [hereinafter Eean].
5. Paul Watzlawick, “Préface“ in Paul Watzlawick, ed. L'Invention de la réalité ou comment savons-nous ce que nous croyons savoir? (Paris: Seuil, 1981) 9
6. Vittorio I. Villa, “La Science juridique entre descriptivisme et constructivisme“ in Paul Amselek, ed. Théorie du droit et science (Paris: P.U.F. 1994) 281.
7. H. G. Gadamer, Vérité et Méthode (Paris: Seuil, 1976)
8. H. G. Gadamer, Philosophic herméneutique (Paris: P.U.F. 1996)
9. Chaim Perelman, Traité de l'argumentation, 5th ed. (Brussels: Editions de l'lnstitut de sociologie, U.L.B. 1988)
10. Chaim Perelman, Logique juridique, nouvelle rhétorique (Paris: Dalloz, 1970); and
11. esp. Chaim Perelman & Paul Foriers, La Motivation des décisions de justice (Brussels: Établissements Émile Bruylant, 1978). In Canada
12. see Marc Gold, “La Rhétorique des droits constitutionnels“ (1988) 22 R.J.T. 1.
13. For further development of this theoretical approach, see Andrée Lajoie, Jugements de valeurs (Paris: P.U.F. 1997) at 133–163.
14. For a more elaborate development of the ideas supporting this hypothesis, see Lajoie, Jugements de valeurs. at 108–116.
15. Jugements de valeurs. at 195–98; Rod Macdonald & Andrée Lajoie, “The Integrity of Institutions: Role and Relationship in Constitutional Design—Whether Parliament and Courts,” Proceedings (Canada-Israël Law Conference of “Litigating the Values of a Nation”, Tel Aviv University, May 1998) [unpublished].
16. An Act to Amend Certain Ontario Statutes to Conform to Section 15 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, S.O. [1986] c. 64, amending, among others, S.O. [1981], c. 53.
17. The Saskatchewan Human Rights Code Amendment Act, S.S. [1993] c. 61, amending S.S. [1979], c. S-24.1.
18. Canada v. Mossop (1993), 1 S.C.R. 554 [hereinafter Mossop], a case in which family was defined as excluding homosexual “families,” thus denying a gay employee the right to attend the funeral of his partner's father, a right enjoyed by members of traditional families.
19. That is, by the Supreme Court of Canada. But some provinces’ Courts of Appeal— namely Nova Scotia, Ontario and Québec—did render decisions that brought the Legislature to extend pension benefits to same-sex partners in the public sector: Nova Scotia v. Hodders, [1998] N.S.J, No. 125, C.A. no. 144161
20. Rosenberg v. Canada, [1998] O.J. No. 1627, C.A. April 23, 1998
21. Commission des droits de la personne et des droits de lajeunesse v. Commission des affaires sociales, [1999] R.J.Q. 180.
22. J. Bryden, “Liberals Lean Towards Omnibus Bill on Gay Rights“ The [Montreal] Gazette (27 May 1999) B-4.
23. J. Ditchburn, “Feds Won't Fight Same-Sex Benefits“ The [Montreal] Gazette (23 June 1998) A-18.
24. J. Bryce, “Flexible and Rigid Constitutions“ in J. Bryce, ed. Studies in History and Jurisprudence, vol. 1 (Oxford: Clarendon, 1901) 145.
25. Two pre-Charter cases, Klippert v. The Queen, Studies in History and Jurisprudence
26. especially Gay Alliance Toward Equality v. Vancouver Sun [(1979) 2 S.C.R. 435] [hereinafter Gay Alliance]—in which freedom of the press not to publish a gay advertisement justified the discrimination involved in that refusal—were too important to omit.
27. The others are post-Charter: Haig, 2 S.C.R.
28. Mossop, 2 S.C.R.
29. Egan, 2 S.C.R.
30. Vriend, 2 S.C.R.
31. M. v. H. 2 S.C.R 34.
32. Rodriguez v. A.G.B.C, [1993] 3 S.C.R. 1161.
33. Schachter v. Canada, [1992] 2 S.C.R. 629.
34. R. v. Seaboyer, [1991] 2 S.C.R. 577.
35. See G. Ménard, “La Communauté gaie: Accomplissement —ou raisonnement—du désir homosexuel“ in A. Corton & M. B. Tahon, eds. La Radicalité du quotidien, communauté et informatique (Montréal: V.L.B. 1987) 99
36. D. Piché, “Pour un militantisme dialogique. 1-La récupération du discours gai par la rectitude politique, 2- Demeurer soi-même“, Le Devoir (9–10 August 1995) A-7
37. J.-P. Lepage, “Militantisme gai“ Le Devoir (31 August 1995) A-6.
38. A practice by which the previously secret homosexuality of a prominent gay or lesbian is publicly disclosed without her or his consent. See C. Mécary & G. De La Pradelle, Les Droits des homosexuels (Paris: P.U.F. 1998) at 13.
39. Perelman & Foriers, Les Droits des homosexuels
40. the authors state that lower courts follow the opposite trend, which might explain an isolated decision where a lower court in Ontario has decided in favour of adoptions by gays and lesbians, when polls show the general population disapproves such openness. See Re K, [1995] 23 O.R. (3d) 679 (O.P.C.).
41. S. Thome, “Liberals Face Stormy Return to Commons“ The [Montreal] Gazette (23 May 1999) A-8.
42. A. Robitaille, “Les Conjoints de même sexe, entre la cour et les Parlements“ Le Devoir (21–22 May 1999) A-12.