Citations [1981] 2 SCR 575 | Ruling court Supreme Court of Canada | |
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Full case name The Minister of Justice of Canada and the Minister of Finance of Canada v Joseph Borowski Prior history APPEAL from Borowski v. Minister of Justice of Canada and Minister of Finance of Canada 1980 CanLII 2279 (5 November 1980) Majority Martland J, joined by Ritchie, Dickson, Beetz, Estey, McIntrye and Chouinard JJ Dissent Laskin CJ, joined by Lamer J | ||
Canada (Minister of Justice) v Borowski, [1981] 2 S.C.R. 575 is a landmark Supreme Court of Canada decision on the standard for allowing public interests to gain standing to challenge a law. The Court developed what is known as the Borowski test for public interest standing.
Contents
Background
Joseph Borowski was a prominent pro-life activist in Saskatchewan who wanted to challenge the abortion provisions under section 287 of the Criminal Code as violations to right to life in the Canadian Bill of Rights.
In a seven to two decision the Court found that Borowski had standing to challenge the law.
Reasons of the court
Justice Martland, wrote the decision for the majority. Martland's reasoning was largely based on the previous decision of Thorson v. Attorney General of Canada, [1975] 1 S.C.R. 138. He stated that a plaintiff seeking a declaration to invalidate a law must show that they are directly affected by it, or have a genuine interest as a citizen and there be no reasonable and effective alternative means to challenge the law.
Borowski was found to meet this requirement as it would be difficult to bring such an issue to court without having an interest group make a challenge.
Commentary
The test was later re-articulated more narrowly in the decision of Canadian Council of Churches v. Canada (Minister of Employment and Immigration), [1992] 1 S.C.R. 236.