Summary of Issue: Charter

Decision A-0281.01 Full Text of Decision A-0281.01

The claimant, a part-time nurse, did not accumulate enough hours to qualify for EI regular or maternity benefits. Umpire held that eligibility requirements had the effect of discriminating against parents/part-time female workers with children, thereby contravening section 15 of the Canadian Charter. The Federal Court of Appeal found that these requirements do not violate the Charter and explains and acknowledges the advantages of the hours-based system, the need for entrance requirements and the ameliorative purpose of the scheme for women. The Court concludes that Parliament is the authority to be relied upon when it comes to a complex statutory scheme such as EI legislation and that the legislator was reasonnable in choosing the entrance requirements. Note: The application for leave to appeal by the claimant was dismissed by the Supreme Court of Canada on July 17, 2003.

Decision 53428 Full Text of Decision 53428

Claimant argues that the Act is discriminating against students or recent students in relation to other workers. Umpire found that the claimant's disqualification results from her own decision on how to best prepare her future, not from a personal characteristic. Being a student is an activity or a state that one chooses: it does not carry any inherent and permanent quality that would make this a personal characteristic which would have been envisaged by the framers of s. 15 of the Charter.

Decision 51142 Full Text of Decision 51142

Refer to summary indexed under FCA A-0281.01