The Equality Provisions of the Charter and Education: A Structural Analysis
Keywords:
Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, equality rights, section 15, educational policy, equal opportunityAbstract
A legal opinion about how s. 15 of the Canadian Charter affects education is developed from texts and existing cases under the Charter and from foreign experience that may be parallel. It is argued that non-discrimination will be an almost absolute protection in only some areas (like sex and race) but weaker in others. Equal opportunity will require judicial enforcement and perhaps additional resources from senior levels of government. Equal outcomes will depend upon people being similarly situated, but this is the broadest approach to equality. Speculations on the probable limits of the courts as providers of remedies are balanced against the possible new opportunities for equality implicit in the Charter.
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