Nearly a decade ago, I posted a plain language guide to the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the Law of Work for Beginners on my SSRN website, a public website that hosts downloadable academic papers. A LOT has changed since I first wrote the article, to the point that the piece wasn’t very useful any longer except as a sort of historical snapshot.
However, spurred on by a lot of comments over the years from law students about how the piece helped them a lot in understanding what they were learning in class, I have finally got around to updating it. The latest version is updated to January 2021 and considers freedom of association, freedom of expression, and equality rights as those parts of the Charter have influenced labour and employment law in Canada. Hope it’s useful.
You can download the piece now at this webpage:
David Doorey, “The Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the Law of Work: A Guide for Beginners”
Here is the Abstract:
This short essay explains in plain language how the Supreme Court of Canada has interpreted and applied the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms to the law of work. It is intended as an introduction to this complex legal field for an audience unfamiliar with the Charter. Beginning with an overview of the Charter review process, the paper then examines the Court’s application to work law of Section 2(d) freedom of association, Section 2(b) freedom of expression, and Section 15 equality rights. The paper summarizes the law as of January 2021.