Slaight Communications Inc. v. Davidson, [1989] 1 S.C.R.
1038 at 1056-57
�.
The underlying values of a free and democratic society both guarantee the rights
in the Charter and,
in appropriate circumstances, justify limitations upon those rights. As
was said in Oakes, supra,
at p. 136, among the underlying values essential to our free and democratic
society are "the inherent dignity of the human person" and "commitment to social
justice and equality". Especially in light of Canada's ratification of
the International
Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights,
G.A. Res. 2200 A (XXI), 21 U.N. GAOR, Supp. (No. 16) 49, U.N. Doc. A/6316
(1966), and commitment therein to protect, inter
alia,
the right to work in its various dimensions found in Article 6 of that treaty,
it cannot be doubted that the objective in this case is a very important
one. In Reference
Re Public Service Employee Relations Act (Alta.), supra,
I had occasion to say at p. 349:
The
content of Canada's international human rights obligations is, in my view, an
important indicia of the meaning of the "full benefit of the Charter's
protection". I believe that the Charter should
generally be presumed to provide protection at least as great as that afforded
by similar provisions in international human rights documents which Canada has
ratified.
Given
the dual function of s. 1 identified in Oakes,
Canada's international human rights obligations should inform not only the
interpretation of the content of the rights guaranteed by the Charter but
also the interpretation of what can constitute pressing and substantial s. 1
objectives which may justify restrictions upon those rights. Furthermore,
for purposes of this stage of the proportionality inquiry, the fact that a value
has the status of an international human right, either in customary
international law or under a treaty to which Canada is a State Party, should
generally be indicative of a high degree of importance attached to that
objective. This is consistent with the importance that this Court has
placed on the protection of employees as a vulnerable group in
society.
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