Oakes brought a motion to challenge the constitutional validity of s. 8 of the Narcotic Control Act, which he maintained imposes a burden on an accused to prove that he or she was not in possession for the purpose of trafficking. He argued that s. 8 violates the presumption of innocence contained in s.
Q. What is the significance of the Oakes case?
Oakes was accused of possession of drugs for the purpose of trafficking. The Supreme Court of Canada concluded that, even if drugs are a scourge, s8 of the Narcotic Control Act runs counter to the presumption of innocence enshrined in s11(d) of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
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Q. What does the Oakes test allow?
The Oakes Test: First, the objective to be served by the measures limiting a Charter right must be sufficiently important to warrant overriding a constitutionally protected right or freedom. Second, the party invoking s. 1 must show the means to be reasonable and demonstrably justified.
Q. What happened in the RV Oakes case?
In the Oakes case itself, the Supreme Court found that the federal government failed to rationally connect Oakes’ possession of a small amount of illegal drugs and money to the presumption that he was engaged in the crime of drug trafficking.
Q. Why was the Keegstra case a landmark decision?
R. v. Keegstra was such a landmark freedom of expression case that aspects of this issue were considered in three separate trips to the Supreme Court of Canada between 1990 and 1996. In the end, a closely divided Court upheld the crime of promoting hatred as a reasonable limit on expression.
Q. Why does the government have to justify limiting a person’s right?
For example, the courts may decide that limiting a person’s freedom of assembly is justified in order to safeguard public safety and protect life, but it may decide that limiting a person’s freedom of assembly is not justified merely to avoid minor traffic delays.
Q. Are human rights limited?
Human rights are universal,. Which means that they apply equally to all people everywhere in the world, and with no time limit.
Q. How can human right be limited?
Specifically, for a restriction of a human right to be considered legitimate, a government has to address the following five criteria: 1) the restriction is provided for and carried out in accordance with the law; 2) the restriction is in the interest of a legitimate objective of general interest; 3) the restriction is …
