Native Women's Association of Canada v. Canada
| Native Women's Assn of Canada v Canada | |
|---|---|
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| Hearing: March 4, 1994 Judgment: October 27, 1994 |
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| Full case name | Her Majesty The Queen v Native Women's Association of Canada, Gail Stacey-Moore and Sharon McIvor |
| Citations | [1994] 3 SCR 627, 1994 CanLII 27, 119 DLR (4th) 224, [1995] 1 CNLR 47, (1994), 24 CRR (2d) 233, (1994), 84 FTR 240 |
| Docket No. | 23253 |
| Prior history | Judgment for the claimants in the Federal Court of Appeal. |
| Holding | |
| A claim to a positive obligation on the government under section 2 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms is not supported by the evidence that an interest group's freedom of expression was not denied. | |
| Court Membership | |
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Chief Justice: Antonio Lamer Puisne Justices: Gérard La Forest, Claire L'Heureux-Dubé, John Sopinka, Charles Gonthier, Peter Cory, Beverley McLachlin, Frank Iacobucci, John C. Major |
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| Reasons given | |
| Majority | Sopinka J., joined by Lamer C.J., La Forest, Gonthier, Cory, Iacobucci, and Major JJ. |
| Concurrence | McLachlin J. |
Native Women's Assn of Canada v Canada, [1994] 3 S.C.R. 627, was a decision by the Supreme Court of Canada on section 2, section 15 and section 28 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, in which the Court decided against the claim that the government of Canada had an obligation to financially support an interest group in constitutional negotiations, to allow the group to speak for its people. The case resulted from negotiations for the Charlottetown Accord, in which various groups representing Aboriginal peoples in Canada were financially supported by the government, but the Native Women's Association of Canada (NWAC) was not. Since NWAC claimed the other Aboriginal groups primarily represented Aboriginal men, it argued that section 28 (sexual equality under the Charter) could be used so that section 2 (freedom of expression) required the government to provide an equal benefit to Aboriginal women, supposedly represented by NWAC.
The case could be seen as unusual, because as the Court noted, "This case does not involve the typical situation of government action restricting or interfering with freedom of expression in the negative sense" and that "the respondents are requesting the Court to consider whether there may be a positive duty on governments to facilitate expression in certain circumstances."
During negotiations for the Charlottetown Accord, there was discussion of enhancing Aboriginal self-government in Canada, and entrenching this new order of government in the Constitution of Canada. Four Aboriginal interest groups participated in the discussions with financial support from the government, namely the Assembly of First Nations (AFN), the Native Council of Canada (NCC), the Métis National Council (MNC) and the Inuit Tapirisat of Canada (ITC). NWAC was not an equal partner among these participants, but some of the money trickled down to this group because it was decided that some of the government money should be spent on discussing women's rights in the Aboriginal community. In some cases, NWAC was left out of certain meetings altogether. They claimed that their aim was to make sure the new Aboriginal self-governments would respect women's Charter rights, and that the other Aboriginal groups primarily represented Aboriginal men.
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