Students who were paid less than casual and regular workers by an aluminum smelter even though they performed equivalent work were discriminated against on the basis of social condition, held the Quebec Court of Appeal.
The mother of a child who was the victim of discrimination based on a handicap was awarded $7,500 in moral damages by the Quebec Court of Appeal in a ruling that reaffirms and advances the rights of parents, according to educational and human rights lawyers.
In a closely-watched ruling by the province’s educational sector, the Montreal School Commission was also ordered to pay an equal amount in moral damages to the child, who is afflicted with Down syndrome, after the appeal court found that it discriminated against him when it failed to implement necessary accommodations to teach him in the first two years of high school.
However the appeal court also found that the school commission did not act in a discriminatory manner when it decided that it would be in the best interests of the child, given his special needs, if he pursued his studies in a specialized school rather than a regular school.
An article of Quebec’s Highway Safety Code that was used to break up demonstrations has been repealed after a Quebec Superior Court judge held that it was unconstitutional in a ruling that reaffirmed that protesting in the streets is a constitutionally protected right.
Justice Guy Cournoyer acquitted Gabriella Garbeau, one of 150 protestors who were fined during a 2011 anti-police brutality march in downtown Montreal under Article 500.1 of Quebec’s Highway Safety Code, which prohibits anyone from using a vehicle or other obstacle to block a highway “during a concerted action intended to obstruct in any way vehicular traffic.”
In a ruling applauded by civil rights activists, Justice Cournoyer overturned a municipal court ruling and found that Article 500.1 was in violation of Garbeau’s right to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly as protected by the Canadian and Quebec charter of rights.
In a ruling that took human rights lawyers by surprise the Quebec Court of Appeal overturned a discrimination case against aeronautics multinational Bombardier Inc. after holding that there was no evidence that a Canadian pilot of Pakistani origin was a victim of ethnic discrimination.
A cardiologist who had sexual relations with a patient was ordered by the Quebec Court of Appeal to pay $100,000 in damages to a former patient.
