John I. Laskin

Appeal from an Ontario reference concerning the constitutional validity of legislation extending full public funding to Roman Catholic separate high schools.

The Supreme Court held the legislation was valid under the province's plenary education power in s. 93 of the Constitution Act, 1867, read with s. 93(3), and that the Confederation compromise respecting denominational schools could not be overridden by Charter equality or religious-freedom guarantees.

A majority also concluded the legislation could be sustained as restoring rights protected by s. 93(1).

The appeal was dismissed, the reference question was answered in the negative, and no costs were awarded.

The complainant, an employee of East Indian origin, alleged that he was laid off by the respondent employer because of his race and ancestry, in violation of the Ontario Human Rights Code.

The employer, which had a predominantly Eastern European workforce, laid off the complainant while retaining less senior Eastern European employees.

The Board of Inquiry found that the employer was in severe financial difficulty and laid off higher-paid senior employees to reduce labour costs.

As the workplace was not unionized, the employer was not obligated to respect seniority.

The Board concluded that racial discrimination was not a proximate cause of the layoff and dismissed the complaint.