"...The first two decades of Charter litigation testify to a certain timidity – both on the part of litigants and the courts – to tackle head on the claims emerging from the right to be free from want." (Louise Arbour)

Chaoulli v. Quebec

CURA Co-Directors Martha Jackman and Bruce Porter provided extensive research in support of a joint intervention at the Supreme Court of Canada by the Charter Committee on Poverty Issues and the Canadian Health Coalition at the Supreme Court of Canada.  The intervention focused on the right to health under international human rights law as it impacts on the interpretation of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.  Martha Jackman acted as counsel for the interveners. This was the only oral intervention before the Court representing the interests of those unable to afford private healthcare and promoting the right to health as a universal right to publicly funded healthcare in Canada. Subsequent to the decision, CURA researchers have engaged in critical analysis and ongoing work with communities involved in assessing the outcome and strategizing further claims.

See the Factum of the Charter Committee on Poverty Issues and the Canadian Health Coalition

Decision in Chaoulli v Québec (2005 SCC 35)

Bruce Porter, "A Right to Healthcare in Canada: Only if you can pay for it" (2005) 6 ESR Review: Economic and Social Rights in South Africa.

Martha Jackman, “’The Last Line of Defence for [Which?] Citizens’: Accountability, Equality and the Right to Health in Chaoulli“ (2006) 44 Osgoode Hall LJ 349.

Martha Jackman, “Health and Equality: Is There a Cure?” (2007) 15 Health LJ 87.   

Martha Jackman, « Sommes nous dignes? Légalité et l’arrêt Gosselin » (2006) 17 RFD 161.

Martha Jackman, “Misdiagnosis or Cure? Charter Review of the Health Care System” in CM Flood, ed, Just Medicare: What’s In, What’s Out, How We Decide (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2006) 58.

Martha Jackman, « L'article 7 de la Charte et les dépenses en soins de santé » dans GP Marchildon, T McIntosh & PG Forest, dir, L'avenir fiscal du système de santé canadien, Ottawa, Les Presses de l'Université d'Ottawa, 2004, 124.

Martha Jackman, “Section 7 of the Charter and Health-Care Spending” in GP Marchildon, T McIntosh & PG Forest, eds, The Fiscal Sustainability of Health Care in Canada (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2004) 110.

Martha Jackman, The Implications of section 7 of the Charter for Health Care Spending in Canada: Discussion Paper No. 31 (Saskatoon: Commission on the Future of Health Care in Canada, 2002).