Jim Evans introduced speaker Meghan McDermott who is the Policy Director at BC Civil Liberties (BCCLA). Meghan joined the BCCLA as staff counsel in March of 2017. With a B.A. in philosophy from Concordia University, her compassion and curiosity drove her to study law at the University of Victoria so that she could collaborate with others to pursue law reform in the interest of enhancing social justice.
Meghan spoke about the BC Civil Liberties organization and they work they do, highlighting through the lens of the COVID pandemic. BC Civil Liberties is the oldest organization of its kind in Canada. Though primarily working out of BC, they do work from coast to coast to coast and have cross-over with Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA) sometimes working hand in hand.
BC Civil Liberties lobby government bodies to ensure they make decisions that are just based on the Canadian Constitution and will, if necessary, sue to push issues. Meghan is part of the legal team that lobbies the government to do what they believe is right. They do a lot of consultations with governments and individuals.
As an example, the BCCLA worked together with CCLA to ultimately celebrate a win in 2019 from a test case about solitary confinement rules – the practice was struck down as unconstitutional and solitary confinement ended.
Another example, BCCLA is still working on another serious issue, medical assistance in dying (MAID). After ten years and two ground-breaking cases they continue to monitor and work on this issue believing that the criminal code and its restrictions excluding the ability to choose from those who were enduring intolerable suffering with no end in sight was unconstitutional.
The COVID-19 pandemic is considered a 5-alarm fire when considering human rights. Meghan grew up hearing about the FLQ crisis and the war measures act. COVID-19 presents the biggest crisis since that period in Canadian history where war measures have been used.
All of the related issues are complex and are difficult to navigate through. There are so many rights at stake and it’s not always clear what information the government has to base their decisions on. There are so many differing opinions for any issues such as BC’s vaccine passport rules. BCCLA works to sort it out, continues to monitor all decisions, ensuring our civil rights are not being upheld throughout.
Another example of this was the inter-provincial restrictions on our movements. In BC we saw restrictions, on a very temporary basis, moving between health regions. The Atlantic provinces did prevent people from entering their respective provinces. The Charter of Rights and Freedoms is used to base arguments on, to ensure we have the rights entitled to us as fundamental rights. How is this done? Determining what is reasonable and justified?
The Oakes test is used by the courts for this purpose. It is a two-part, basic test that was formed at the Supreme Court of Canada in the 1986 case of
R v Oakes. “[1] The test interprets section 1 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which states that rights are guaranteed, “subject only to such reasonable limits . . . as can be demonstrably justified in a free and democratic society.” [2] This means that the government must establish that the benefits of a law outweigh its negative impact—that is, its violation of a Charter right.
(source: https://www.constitutionalstudies.ca/2019/07/oakes-test/).
Part (1) of the test:
- The government must establish that the law under review has a goal that is both “pressing and substantial”. The law must be both important and necessary. Governments are usually successful in this first step.
Part (2) of the test where a proportionality analysis is conducted:
- The government must first establish that the provision of the law which limits a Charter right is rationally connected to the law’s purpose. If it is arbitrary or serves no logical purpose, then it will not meet this standard.
- Secondly, a provision must minimally impair the violated Charter right. A provision that limits a Charter right will be constitutional only if it impairs the Charter right as little as possible or is “within a range of reasonably supportable alternatives”.
- Finally, the court examines the law’s proportionate effects. Even if the government can satisfy the above steps, the effect of the provision on Charter rights may be too high a price to pay for the advantage the provision would provide in advancing the law’s purpose. The more serious the infringement on rights and freedoms, the more we should expect that a real, pressing, and substantial benefit to society is to be gained.
People coming out of the woodwork looking for BC Civil Liberties to take on their fight to not be vaccinated. It is so complicated – ultimately the BCCLA board decided to support vaccination programs as they stand now in BC. The issue is continually monitored. As we see deaths increase/decrease BCCLA’s stand may change. Their current view is that vaccine passport mandates are actually protecting our rights and freedoms. Is it better to close all of the places, or to have them open even at partial capacity while asking for proof of vaccination? Grand scheme, better to have the latter.
Another part of human rights is equality rights. One upsetting aspect of the current vaccination rules is that there are very narrow exceptions. Currently there is no allowance for those folks who cannot for medical reasons be fully vaccinated. BCCLA is working on this.
Yet another big issue with the police enforcement of the rules, as with the travel ban last spring. This is concerning given the history of police action. How do we reasonably deal with people who do not have adequate shelter, but are required under the rules to stay in place sheltered if they have COVID? How do you reconcile this for those who are homeless?
The fight for our civil rights and liberties continues. For more information:
- See the BC Civil Liberties website, CLICK HERE
- To read about CCLA’s work with COVID cases, CLICK HERE
“The Canadian Civil Liberties Association was constituted in 1964 to promote respect for and
observance of fundamental human rights and civil liberties, and to defend and foster the
recognition of those rights and liberties. We are a national, independent, non-governmental
charity. We are in the courts, classrooms and in your community. Since our founding, CCLA
has been at the forefront of protecting fundamental freedoms and democratic life in Canada. A
wide variety of people, occupations and interests are represented in our membership. The
Canadian Civil Liberties Education Trust, the CCLA’s education arm, has been engaged in
public education since its inception in 1968.”
May this long continue.
Cecelia Reekie is a proud member of the Haisla Nation (Kitamaat) who is married, has two adult sons and lives in Aldergrove. She also is a member of the Aldergrove Rotary Club. Reconciliation became a passion of hers once she had the opportunity to hear her Dad's story.
