Reference Re Genetic Non-Discrimination Act: How to Make Space for Some Certainty

Authors

Hoi L. Kong, University of British Columbia

Abstract

In the Reference re Genetic Non-Discrimination Act (Reference) the Supreme Court of Canada divided three ways, reproducing the divisions from the Reference re Assisted Human Reproduction Act (AHRA), decided a decade earlier. AHRA did not provide a majority statement of the rule for determining what constitutes a valid exercise of the section 91(27) criminal law power. Neither did the Reference. As a consequence, uncertainty in this area of the law persists. This article suggests arguments that, if adopted, would resolve this uncertainty. Part I summarizes the Reference, including the three sets of reasons written by Karakatsanis J., Moldaver J. and Kasirer J., respectively. Part II is organized around three spatial metaphors: the relationship of parts to the whole, breadth, and line-drawing. Part II begins by addressing an apparent disagreement in the federalism jurisprudence and in the Reference about the proper order for pith and substance analyses, when a part of an act is at issue. I argue that in some cases it is necessary to interpret an act as a whole before assessing its parts. Part II then turns to disagreements in the Court about the breadth of the criminal law power. I argue that Karakatsanis J.’s expansive interpretation places in jeopardy federalism principles and that Kasirer J.’s criticisms of that interpretation were justified. Part II concludes by examining a disagreement between Kasirer and Karakatsanis JJ. about whether the test for validity under the criminal law power should include a line-drawing exercise. I argue that this relatively narrow disagreement reveals a deeper debate about the appropriate role of courts in adjudicating disputes about the criminal law power. I conclude that Kasirer J.’s position flows from an understanding of the judicial role that is consistent with the broader federalism jurisprudence.

Citation Information

Kong, Hoi L.. "Reference Re Genetic Non-Discrimination Act: How to Make Space for Some Certainty." The Supreme Court Law Review: Osgoode’s Annual Constitutional Cases Conference 104. (2022).
DOI: https://doi.org/10.60082/2563-8505.1425
https://digitalcommons.osgoode.yorku.ca/sclr/vol104/iss1/3

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

References

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6 Hogg, Amarnath, at 130.

7 Reference re Genetic Non-Discrimination Act, [2020] S.C.J. No. 17, 2020 SCC 17 (S.C.C.) [hereinafter "Reference"].

8 Reference re Assisted Human Reproduction Act, [2010] S.C.J. No. 61, 2010 SCC 61 (S.C.C.) [hereinafter "AHRA"].

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70 See e.g., James Boyd White, The Legal Imagination: 45th Anniversary Edition (Wolters Kluwer, 2018), at 63. Perhaps the most famous spatial metaphor is of law's penumbra. For a survey of American judicial treatments of the metaphor, as well as H.L.A. Hart's discussion of it, see Burr Henly, "'Penumbra': The Roots of a Legal Metaphor" (1987) 15:1 Hastings Const. L.Q. 81.

71 Roderick A. Macdonald, "Custom Made - For a Non-chirographic Critical Legal Pluralism" (2011) 26:2 Can J. L. & Soc. 301, at 322. https://doi.org/10.3138/cjls.26.2.301

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76 Bill C-19, An Act to Amend the Criminal Code and the Firearms Acts [Ending the Long-Gun Registry Act], 1st Sess., 41st Parl., 2012 (assented to April 5, 2012), c. 6, s. 29 . Quebec, at para. 34.

77 That provision required "the destruction of all records contained in the registries related to the registration of long guns". Quebec, at para. 7.

78 Quebec, at para. 34.

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81 The disagreement between Moldaver and Kasirer JJ. on the application of Ward v. Canada (Attorney General), [2002] S.C.J. No. 21, 2002 SCC 17 (S.C.C.) [hereinafter "Ward'] turns on this point. According to Moldaver J. (Reference, at para. 116), Kasirer J.'s reasons contravened the injunction in Ward that courts should not "confuse the law's purpose with the means chosen to achieve it". (Ward, at para. 25). Justice Moldaver reasoned that Kasirer J. confused the means chosen by Parliament (i.e., regulating contracts and the provision of goods and services), with Parliament's dominant purpose. Yet, as Kasirer J. noted, he did not conclude that the provisions were ultra vires from the simple fact that Parliament adopted the "means" of regulating contracts and the provision of goods and services. Instead, he reasoned that these activities "are central to the impugned provisions, and are caught up in the expression of the legislative purpose". (Reference, at para. 226). As we have seen, Kasirer J. reasoned that that purpose fell within the exclusive jurisdiction of the provinces.

82 Reference, at para. 35.

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84 AHRA, at para. 18.

85 General Motors, at 666-69.

86 Renvoi relatif à la Loi sur la non-discrimination génétique édictée par les articles 1 à 7 de la Loi visant à interdire et à prévenir la discrimination génétique, [2018] J.Q. no 12399, 2018 QCCA 2193 (Que. C.A.).

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88 Reference, at para. 78.

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91 R. v. Hydro-Québec, [1997] S.C.J. No. 76, [1997] 3 S.C.R. 213 (S.C.C.) [hereinafter "Hydro-Québec"].

92 Jeremy Webber, The Constitution of Canada: A Contextual Analysis (Hart, 2015), at 160.

93 Hydro-Québec, at para. 121.

94 See the discussion in Mark Carter, "Criminal Law in the Federal Context" Peter Oliver, Patrick Macklem & Nathalie Des Rosiers, eds., The Oxford Handbook of the Canadian Constitution (New York: Oxford University Press, 2017) 476, at 489-90 [hereinafter "Carter, 'Criminal Law'"].

95 For a summary of the literature, see Carter, "Criminal Law", at 481-82. Particularly evocative is the following: "Morris Manning, for example, suggested that the trend bore out Albert Abel's characterization of the criminal law power as the 'floodplain clause which has enabled the Dominion Parliament to engulf whatever it will.'" Carter, Criminal Law", at 481-82.

96 Reference, at para. 77.

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99 Reference re: Anti-Inflation Act (Canada), [1976] S.C.J. No. 12, [1976] 2 S.C. R. 373 (S.C.C.) [hereinafter "Anti-Inflation Reference"].

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106 For instance, after Laskin C.J.C. described the POGG power as "operative outside of the powers assigned to the provincial legislatures" he noted that the power "is also fed by a catalogue of exclusive enumerated powers which are declared to be paramount and thus diminish the scope of provincial legislative authority". Anti-Inflation Reference, at 393. Although it is not clear what precisely he meant by the expression "fed by", it is clear from the context that the POGG power is, in his view, independent of the enumerated heads of power.

107 Peter Hogg, Constitutional Law of Canada, Student ed. (Toronto: Thomson Reuters, 2019), at 17-27 [hereinafter "Hogg, Constitutional Law"].

108 Hogg, Constitutional Law, at 17-27.

109 Factum of the Amicus Curiae in Reference, at para. 49.

110 References re Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act, [2021] S.C.J. No. 11, at para. 49, 2021 SCC 11 (S.C.C.) [hereinafter "Greenhouse Gas Reference"].

111 Greenhouse Gas Reference, at para. 49.

112 As we have seen above, Karakatsanis J. recognized that validly enacted criminal law has the legal effect of being paramount over any conflicting provincial legislation. Reference, at para. 53.

113 See, e.g., Martin Loughlin, Foundations of Public Law (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010), at 401.

114 Anti-Inflation Reference, at 438.

115 Reference, at para. 263.

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128 Greenhouse Gas Reference, at para. 148.

129 Reference re Pan-Canadian Securities Regulation, [2018] S.C.J. No. 48, at para. 101, 2018 SCC 48 (S.C.C.) [hereinafter "Securities Regulation"].

130 Securities Regulation, at para. 103.

131 See, e.g., Jeremy Waldron, "The Core of the Case Against Judicial Review" (2006) 115:6 Yale L.J. 1346. https://doi.org/10.2307/20455656

132 See, e.g., Abram Chayes, "The Role of the Judge in Public Law Litigation" (1976) 89 Harv. L. Rev. 1281. https://doi.org/10.2307/1340256

133 Hoi L. Kong, "Republicanism and the Division of Powers in Canada" (2014) 64:3 U.T.L.J. 359, at 392-93. https://doi.org/10.3138/utlj.0425