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Justice Rennie directed counsel to address by February 22nd whether the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms covers non-Canadians residing abroad. Replies are due March 1st. Thus, no decision from the January 14th-16th hearing will be released until mid-March at the earliest. While the delay is disappointing, the fact that Justice Rennie has asked the question implies that he is prepared to declare s. 87.4 unlawful provided the Charter applies
In his previous capacity as a DoJ lawyer, Justice Rennie wrote an article on this issue. It may be found at:http://pi.library.yorku.ca/ojs/index.php/sclr/article/viewFile/34832/31636
The article notes that the Supreme Court of Canada has found that the Charter applies extraterritoriality where a Canadian is involved and that lower courts have ruled that that finding limits application of the Charter to (a) Canadian abroad or (b) foreigners in Canada. However, the Supreme Court has never ruled that it does not apply to non-Canadians abroad because such a case has not reached it. It did, however, decline to overturn a ruling to that effect where the action itself occurred outside of Canada to non-Canada where Canadian officials were tangential actors in actions foreign national conducted; i.e., US officials at Guantánamo. In this case, the action occurred in Canada, the perpetrators are exclusively Canadian and application of the Charter will not impinge on the sovereignty of any foreign government. Furthermore, at the end of the article, Justice Rennie (before he was justice) noted that the European Court of Human Rights has observed that international law recognizes the extraterritorial law within the confines of a nation's diplomatic mission; i.e., Canadian law may be applied with respect to what occurs within a Canadian embassy or high commission.
Therefore, it would appear that (a) the immigrant visa applicants have Charter rights with respect to the closing of the FSW files because the action occurred in Canada and was applied within a Canadian diplomatic mission and (b) its application will not impinge on any foreign government's sovereignty. However, because the Supreme Court of Canada has not ruled on this issue, the litigation may well reach the Supreme Court of Canada.
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