On May 14-15, 2025, the Income Security Advocacy Centre (ISAC) intervened in Attorney General of Québec v. Kanyinda at the Supreme Court of Canada. The case is the next opportunity for the Supreme Court to engage with the equality rights section of the Charter.
Ms. Kanyinda, a woman refugee claimant, was excluded from access to subsidized childcare in Québec because the regulation governing the program excludes refugee claimants. Ms. Kanyinda alleged that this exclusion resulted in indirect discrimination on the basis of sex, and direct discrimination on the basis of citizenship and immigration status, contrary to the equality rights section of the Charter. In the decision below, the Québec Court of Appeal agreed with Ms. Kanyinda that the exclusion resulted in indirect discrimination on the basis of sex because the regulation’s exclusion disproportionately impacts women refugee claimants. When parents are unable to access childcare, it is disproportionately women who are unable to join the workforce. The Attorney General of Québec appealed this finding to the Supreme Court. The Court of Appeal declined to rule on the grounds of citizenship and immigration status, but the Supreme Court heard arguments about these additional grounds.
ISAC intervened because this case will have far-reaching implications on access to benefits for refugee claimants and other marginalized communities. ISAC is interested in reducing barriers to workforce participation for populations that have historically been excluded, including women and migrants.
Staff Lawyers Robin Nobleman and Adrian Merdzan represented ISAC. ISAC’s submissions focused on how to conduct a contextual, intersectional analysis of single-ground discrimination, and how to incorporate the domino effects of Canada’s interconnected benefit schemes into the equality rights test. ISAC is committed to ensuring that the Charter’s guarantee of substantive equality is meaningful and takes into account the lived experiences of low-income people, who face intersecting forms of disadvantage.
The Supreme Court reserved its decision, meaning we will not know the result of the case until the court releases written reasons.
ISAC’s factum is posted in our Publications section here and is also posted on the Supreme Court of Canada’s website here under the Factums tab.
You can watch a webcast of the two-day hearing here under the Webcasts tab. ISAC made submissions during the second day of the hearing (2025-05-15). Staff Lawyer Robin Nobleman’s submissions start at the 1:56:12 mark.