Egan v. Canada
Egan v. Canada [1995] 2 S.C.R. 513 was a case argued before the Supreme Court of Canada regarding gay rights.
James Egan and John Norris Nesbit were a gay couple who had been in a conjugal relationship since 1948. Upon reaching age 65 in 1986, Egan began to receive old age security from the government under the Old Age Security Act. When Nesbit reached 60, he applied for a spousal allowance, and was turned down on the basis that he and Egan were not spouses for the purpose of the Act. Egan brought suit. After losing their case in the Trial Division and the Federal Court of Appeal, Egan and Nesbit brought an appeal to the Supreme Court.
On May 25, 1995, the court dismissed the appeal, ruling that the definition of "spouse" in the Old Age Security Act was constitutional. (Lamer C.J. and La Forest, Sopinka, Gonthier, and Major JJ. in favour; L'Heureux-Dubé, Cory, McLachlin, and Iacobucci JJ. dissenting).
Nevertheless, the case set a critical precedent in favour of gay rights. The justices ruled unanimously that discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation was prohibited by Section 15 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which provides that:
- Every individual is equal before and under the law and has the right to the equal protection and equal benefit of the law without discrimination and, in particular, without discrimination based on race, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, sex, age or mental or physical disability.
The ruling stated:
- Sexual orientation is a deeply personal characteristic that is either unchangeable or changeable only at unacceptable personal costs, and so falls within the ambit of s. 15 protection as being analogous to the enumerated grounds.'
As it provided the precedent that S. 15 forbids discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, Egan is often summarized by saying that sexual orientation was "read into" the Charter.
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