DOES THE CHARTER OF RIGHTS AND FREEDOMS APPLY?
The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms is part of the Canadian Constitution. It gives individual citizens the power to bring claims against government actions (e.g. laws) or agencies that they feel violate the rights (such as freedom of religion, freedom from discrimination) to which they are entitled. The Charter states that it applies only to the government, so if an organization is an entirely private enterprise, the Charter will have no application. However, if a volunteer organization is a government department, the Charter must be taken into consideration. The difficulty arises in deciding whether the vast number of organizations which are funded by government or established by an Act of government, are covered by the Charter. The Supreme Court of Canada has held that the Charter will apply only to an “exercise of, or reliance upon, governmental action.” Rather than trying to speculate whether a court would consider the organization a government agency or not, the most prude
