{"id":23378,"date":"2023-06-16T15:55:56","date_gmt":"2023-06-16T19:55:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.leaf.ca\/?post_type=news&#038;p=23378"},"modified":"2024-09-16T18:30:55","modified_gmt":"2024-09-16T22:30:55","slug":"supreme-court-stca-ruling","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.leaf.ca\/fr\/news\/supreme-court-stca-ruling\/","title":{"rendered":"Supreme Court of Canada affirms gender equality rights must not be neglected but fails to strike down Safe Third Country Agreement"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>June 16, 2023 \u2013 For Immediate Release<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ottawa, unceded Algonquin Anishinaabe territory \u2013 In today\u2019s ruling on the Safe Third Country Agreement (STCA) challenge, the Supreme Court of Canada agreed with the Asper Centre, LEAF and West Coast LEAF that there must not be a hierarchy of <em>Charter<\/em> rights in which equality rights occupy a lower tier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Canadian Council for Refugees<\/em> is a challenge to the constitutionality of the STCA under ss.7 and ss.15 of the <em>Charter<\/em>. Under the STCA regime, people who arrive in Canada from the U.S. by land through a designated port of entry are ineligible to make a refugee claim in Canada and are sent back to the U.S. The STCA is particularly harmful to women and people marginalized because of gender, because their claims of gender-based violence are much more likely to be denied in the U.S. than in Canada.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>LEAF, West Coast LEAF, and the David Asper Centre for Constitutional Rights intervened in the case to advocate for women and refugees marginalized because of gender and to ensure that equality rights claims would not be sidelined again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Supreme Court of Canada unanimously upheld the STCA regime as constitutional under section 7 of the <em>Charter, <\/em>finding that the legislation did not breach the Applicants\u2019 liberty and security rights. However, the Supreme Court allowed the appeal in part and ordered the challenge to section 15, based on the harms to women fearing gender-based persecution, to be sent back to Federal Court for determination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>LEAF, West Coast LEAF and the David Asper Centre are glad to see a recognition of the profound seriousness of gender-based violence and a clear assertion by the Court that equality rights cannot be ignored.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Court directly acknowledged their intervention to state that \u201cclaims based on s. 15 are not secondary issues only to be reached after all other issues are considered\u201d and held that the significant evidentiary record related to gender-based violence presented by the Applicants must be assessed properly by a lower court.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe decision demonstrates the importance of having public interest interveners to ensure that the rights of equality-seeking groups are heard by the Court,\u201d says <strong>Cheryl<\/strong><strong> Milne, <\/strong>Executive Director of the Asper Centre and co-counsel for LEAF, West Coast LEAF, and the Asper Centre. \u201cBy focusing on the section 15 claim, we were able to highlight the importance of acknowledging the unique harms faced by women and refugees marginalized because of gender when other parties had limited space to present this perspective. The Court responded and acknowledged this substantive claim needs to be addressed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, the Court\u2019s analysis of s. 7 raises troubling implications for access to justice and future challenges to the refugee determination system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u00ab\u00a0This decision is disappointing since it finds the shortcomings in the US refugee determination system, including the use of immigration detention and problematic approaches to gender-based refugee claims, tolerable\u201d says <strong>Jamie Liew<\/strong>, Professor at the University of Ottawa\u2019s Faculty of Law and co-counsel for LEAF, West Coast LEAF, and the Asper Centre. \u201cIt allows the government to continue to close the land border to refugee claimants and evade our international legal obligations.\u00a0\u00bb<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This ruling comes months after Canada and the US announced an expansion for the STCA across the entire land border.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u00ab\u00a0This decision has wider implications for <em>Charter<\/em> claims in the future,\u201d says Liew. \u201cThe first is that courts can no longer ignore section 15 and equality rights claims whenever they are raised. The second is that for those putting forward section 7 claims, unfortunately, there appears to be a huge evidentiary burden, and this raises questions about the ability to access<em> Charter <\/em>rights in the courts.\u00a0\u00bb<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Supreme Court\u2019s decision leaves open the possibility that the STCA could still be struck down. The case will now be sent back to the Federal Court to hear full evidence of gender-based harm for a determination of the s.15 claim.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>LEAF is grateful to the members of the case committee that have guided, informed, and supported this intervention: Coline Bellefleur, Mary Eberts, Jennifer Koshan, and Margot Young.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Read LEAF, West Coast LEAF, and the Asper Centre\u2019s Supreme Court of Canada <a href=\"https:\/\/www.leaf.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/39749-Factum-of-DAC-LEAF-and-WCLEAF.pdf\">factum.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>-30-<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Media Contacts<br><\/strong>Jamie Liew<br>Professor, Faculty of Law, University of Ottawa&nbsp;<br>613-808-5592<br><a href=\"mailto:Jamie.Liew@uottawa.ca\">Jamie.Liew@uottawa.ca<\/a><strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Cheryl Milne&nbsp;<br>Executive Director, David Asper Centre for Constitutional Rights<br>416-540-7619&nbsp;<br><a href=\"mailto:cheryl.milne@utoronto.ca\">cheryl.milne@utoronto.ca<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>About Women\u2019s Legal Education and Action Fund (LEAF)<br><\/strong>The Women\u2019s Legal Education and Action Fund (LEAF) is a national not-for-profit that works to advance the equality rights of women, girls, trans, and non-binary people in Canada through litigation,&nbsp;law reform,&nbsp;and public legal education.&nbsp;Since 1985, LEAF has intervened in more than 100 cases that have helped shape the&nbsp;<em>Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms<\/em>. To find out more, visit <a href=\"http:\/\/www.leaf.ca\/\">www.leaf.ca<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>About West Coast LEAF&nbsp;<br><\/strong>West Coast LEAF is a non-profit organization formed in 1985, the year the equality guarantees of the Canadian <em>Charter of Rights and Freedoms <\/em>came into force. West Coast LEAF\u2019s mandate is to use the law to create an equal and just society for all women and people who experience gender-based discrimination in BC. In collaboration with community, we use litigation, law reform, and public legal education to make change. For more information, visit <a href=\"https:\/\/www.westcoastleaf.org\/\">westcoastleaf.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>About David Asper Centre for Constitutional Rights<br><\/strong>The David Asper Centre for Constitutional Rights is devoted to realizing constitutional rights through advocacy, research and education. The Centre aims to play a vital role in articulating Canada\u2019s constitutional vision to the broader world. The cornerstone of the Centre is a legal clinic that brings together students, faculty and members of the bar to work on significant constitutional cases and advocacy initiatives. The Centre was established through a generous gift from U of T law alumnus David Asper (LLM \u201907). For more information please visit&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/aspercentre.ca\/\">www.aspercentre.ca<\/a>.<strong><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23378","news","type-news","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Supreme Court of Canada affirms gender equality rights must not be neglected but fails to strike down Safe Third Country Agreement - LEAF<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.leaf.ca\/fr\/news\/supreme-court-stca-ruling\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"fr_FR\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Supreme Court of Canada affirms gender equality rights must not be neglected but fails to strike down Safe Third Country Agreement - 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