nanak12 said:
thank u very much BCguy, and when should i get my PR ? and if i moved to alberta, would this make any problems when gettin my citizenship after 3 years ?
Mobility Rights under Canadian Constitution
Section 1 of the Charter allows legislatures to impose reasonable limits upon rights and freedoms guaranteed by the Charter, including mobility rights. However, the legislative override, provided in section 33 of the Charter, which allows Parliament or a provincial legislative to expressly declare that legislation shall operate "notwithstanding" much of the Charter, does not apply to section 6.
6(1) Every citizen of Canada has the right to enter, remain in and leave Canada.6(2)
Every citizen of Canada and every person who has the status of a permanent resident of Canada has the right (a) to move to and take up residence in any province; and (b) to pursue the gaining of a livelihood in any province.
A variety of Canadian laws which would tend to limit mobility rights have been examined, including laws regarding extradition, quarantine, bail, probation, parole, imprisonment, and custody of children. For the most part, such limits have been upheld as being reasonably justified under section 1 of the Charter. Although unreasonable limits to interprovincial mobility are unlikely to survive Charter scrutiny, the courts have held that section 6 mobility rights do not include the right to establish oneself professionally anywhere in Canada regardless of qualifications. Specifically, it is clear that the right to interprovincial mobility does not create a right to work.
Section 6(2) seems to create prima facie rights to receive social services in different provinces, as well as a prima facie prohibition against employment restrictions based on province of previous or present residence. These rights are limited both by the provisions of section 6(3) and (4), and section 1 of the Charter.
A. Limitations on Mobility Rights
6(3) The rights specified in subsection (2) are subject to
a) any laws or practices of general application in force in a province other than those that discriminate among persons primarily on the basis of province of present or previous residence; and
b) any laws providing for reasonable residency requirements as a qualification for the receipt of publicly provided social services.
(4) Subsections (2) and (3) do not preclude any law, program or activity that has as its object the amelioration in a province of conditions of individuals in that province who are socially or economically disadvantaged if the rate of employment in that province is below the rate of employment in Canada.
These paragraphs create several limits to mobility rights. Laws requiring reasonable residence periods in order to qualify for social service programs, laws that do not discriminate on the basis of province of previous or present residence, and laws designed to improve conditions in areas of Canada with lower than average employment rates, are all exempted from the mobility rights guarantee in section 6. In other words, these types of provisions can infringe mobility rights, without being unconstitutional. Additionally, a law that is not saved by section 6(3) or (4) may be saved by analysis under section 1 of the Charter as being demonstrably justified in a free and democratic society.
Under section 6(4) the courts will be required to look at the object of the law, program or activity, as well as at how the law is specifically tailored to benefit those individuals in the province who are socially or economically disadvantaged. Interestingly, to date no province has used section 6(4) in a legal action to justify programs that discriminate in favour of disadvantaged residents.
