CCLA Intervenes Before Supreme Court to Defend Migrant Rights

TORONTO — Counsel for the Canadian Civil Liberties Association appears today at the Supreme Court of Canada as intervenors in the case of Attorney General of Québec v. Bijou Cibuabua Kanyinda, et al. 

This case concerns migrants’ access to Canadian social benefit schemes. In particular, whether an individual who has applied for refugee status under the Canadian Immigration and Refugee Protection Act is eligible for subsidized childcare in Quebec when they hold a valid work permit.  

In this case, Ms. Kanyinda, originally from the Democratic Republic of Congo, made a claim for refugee protection upon arriving in Canada in 2018. She obtained a work permit while waiting for her claim to be processed, and subsequently sought subsidized childcare spaces for her three young children. She was denied access to Quebec’s subsidized childcare regime because section 3 of the Reduced Contribution Regulation excludes refugee claimants from eligibility; such spaces are reserved only for those whose refugee status has been granted by the federal government.  

Ms. Kanyinda challenged this exclusion as sex-based discrimination arguing that the legislative scheme disproportionately impacts refugee claimants who are women. She also challenged the exclusion as discriminatory on the basis of immigration status and citizenship. The Attorney General of Quebec has appealed the decision of the Quebec Court of Appeal, which found that the regulation discriminates against migrant women on the basis of sex. The Quebec Court of Appeal declined to consider the Charter claims on the basis of immigration status.  

The CCLA intervened in this case to argue that migrants should have access to applicable social services in Canada and that migration status should be a protected ground under section 15(1) of the Charter. The CCLA further intervened to dispute Quebec’s proposition that migrants need have a “sufficient connection” to Quebec in order to access benefits.  

“It is arbitrary and unfair to deny individuals access to social services based on their migrant status, and in particular, at a crucial stage in which migrants may be getting on their feet in Canada,” Aaden Pearson, Staff Lawyer in the Equality Program at the Canadian Civil Liberties Association. 

The CCLA is grateful to be represented on this intervention by Lex Gill and Bruce Johnston of Trudel Johnston & Lespérance. 

Read our intervention factum here.