Entities Exercising Governmental Functions

An entity can be considered “government” for the purposes of s. 32 if it exercises governmental functions.  In Godbout v Longueuil (City) the Supreme Court of Canada first expressly said that municipalities can be considered “governmental entities”.  In this case, the city made a rule that all permanent employees of the city had to live within city limits.  Godbout, an employee of the city, signed a document agreeing to this. The document contained a clause saying that if she moved out of the city limits she could be fired without notice.  Godbout moved and was fired.  The majority of the court ruled that the clause violated s. 5 of Quebec’s Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms (respect for private life).

La Forest went on to discuss the Charter’s application to municipalities:

·      Municipalities are institutionally distinct from provincial governments but are “governmental entities”

·      Based his finding on a few things:

o   Municipal councils are democratically elected by members of public, accountable to their constituents just like Parliament and provincial legislatures

o   Municipalities have general taxing powers

o   Municipalities are empowered to make, administer and enforce laws

o   Municipalities derive existence and law-making authority from the provinces

·      Charter applies to provincial legislatures and governments, therefore it must also apply to entities (including municipal bodies) that are given government powers by the provinces or are governmental in nature

·      Otherwise, provinces could avoid Charter obligations by giving certain powers to these entities and have them carry out what are actually governmental activities or policies