Roger Leclaire

Appeal from the denial of charitable registration to an organization serving immigrant and visible minority women through employment-related workshops, counselling, and referral supports.

The majority held that the organization’s primary educational purpose could fit within an expanded understanding of the advancement of education, but the organization still failed because its purposes and activities were not exclusively charitable and were too vague and broad to confine it to charitable activities alone.

The Court declined to undertake wholesale reform of the common law definition of charity, leaving any major expansion to Parliament.

The equality challenge under s. 15 of the Charter was also rejected.

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) was charged under the Criminal Code with broadcasting an obscene film.

The CBC argued that as a Crown corporation, it enjoyed Crown immunity from criminal prosecution.

The Supreme Court of Canada held that while the CBC acts as an agent of the Crown when lawfully executing its powers under the Broadcasting Act, it steps outside its agency role when it exercises its powers in a manner inconsistent with the Act.

Because broadcasting an obscene film is prohibited by regulations under the Broadcasting Act and the Criminal Code, the CBC was not acting as a Crown agent and is subject to criminal prosecution.