News Release Archive

HUMAN RIGHTS--COURT OVERTURNS BOARD OF INQUIRY DECISION
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The Nova Scotia Court of Appeal has overturned a decision by a
board of inquiry appointed under the Nova Scotia Human Rights Act
on the complaint of Gillis Carrigan, of Halifax.

The court of appeal adopted the position, advanced by the Human
Rights Commission at the appeal of the Board of Inquiry decision.
Commission executive director Wayne MacKay, said "The court of
appeal decision enables Mr. Carrigan and the commission to
continue their complaint against the Department of Community
Services challenging the rule, that married separated single
parents must wait six months to apply for family benefits."

It is important to distinguish between the independent board of
inquiry and the commission. The commission appears as a party to
the proceedings, through its legal counsel, at the hearings held
by the board of inquiry. The commission can also appear as a
party to an appeal of a board decision or initiate such an appeal
as it did in the Carrigan case.

On May 5, 1994, Mr. Carrigan lodged a complaint with the
commission, alleging that the Department of Community Services
discriminated against him because of his marital status. After
separating from his spouse, Mr. Carrigan tried to apply for
family benefits for his son and himself. His complaint challenged
Regulation 20, of the Family Benefits Act, which states that
married separated single parents may not apply for family
benefits until six months after their separation. No other
applicants for family benefits face this waiting period. Mr.
Carrigan's complaint called for regulation 20 of the Family
Benefits Act to be declared void, pursuant to Section 10 of the
N. S. Human Rights Act, which states that regulations that make a
negative distinction based on characteristics protected by the
act are void and of no legal effect.

The complaint could not be resolved following the investigation.
The matter proceeded to a public board of inquiry chaired by
David Miller, who presided over a public hearing into the
matters. In his decision of June 12, 1996, Mr. Miller dismissed
Mr. Carrigan's complaint relying on a decision of Mr. Justice
Goodfellow of the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia. The decision
Rhyno v. the Minister of Community Services, held that regulation
20 of the Family Benefits Act was not discriminatory under the
Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Mr. Miller found that
this meant that regulation 20 could not be found to violate the
Human Rights Act.

Mr. Carrigan and the Nova Scotia Human Rights Commission appealed
Mr. Miller's decision to the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal. The
court heard the matter Feb. 15, 1997. In its decision of Feb. 26,
1997, the appeal court ruled that Justice Goodfellow was wrong in
Rhyno case to find that regulation 20 of the Family Benefits Act
did not create a legal distinction.


In the Rhyno case, Justice Goodfellow also found that Ms. Rhyno
was not discriminated against because she was treated "the same
as all other married separated persons with child." He did not
compare her treatment to that of other applicants for family
benefits who are not married. The court ruled that Justice
Goodfellow thus applied a "similarly situated" test to determine
that regulation 20 was not discriminatory. The Supreme Court of
Canada has rejected this "similarly situated" test for
discrimination. As a result, the board of inquiry would be able
to reach a conclusion that there was discrimination based upon
the current legal tests, rather than the outdated one applied in
Rhyno.

The court has sent the complaint back to the board of inquiry
with instructions to conduct another hearing to determine whether
regulation 20 of the Family Benefits Act is discriminatory under
the Human Rights Act. The board is to apply the law as stated by
the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court of Canada.

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Contact: Wayne MacKay     902-424-4111 or 902-477-5864

         Francine Comeau  902-424-4111

trp                   Mar. 6, 1997 - 4:30 p.m.