Seeking information in a specific legal area? Can't afford a lawyer? Want to know where to go to find more information? The ACLC provides access to material that will help you to understand and exercise your legal rights.
Learn how the ACLC's African Canadian Youth Justice Program serves African Canadian youth involved in the justice system while providing community supports.
The ACLC supports the National African Canadian Initiative on Full Participation and Capacity Building.
For the ACLC, a test case is one that, because of its particular facts and the law, will have a broad system-wide impact on the African Canadian community.
Since its inception the ACLC has actively participated in several cases, many of which resulted in important legal precedents. Test Cases Include:
You can also view test case decisions.
The cases of R. v. S. (R.D.) and R. v. Williams put the issue of racism within Canadian society before the courts, resulting in the Supreme Court of Canada acknowledging the insidious and pervasive nature of racism within Canada.
The Federal Court decision in Said v. Minister of Citizenship and Immigration paved the way for members of the Somali community and other convention refugees to be able to submit statutory declarations as a form of identification when applying for landed immigrant status.
In R. v. Golden the Supreme Court of Canada decided that the police could no longer carry out automatic strip searches on arrest. Even when police have sufficient reasons to carry out an arrest, they do not have automatic authority to carry out a strip search.
The Court of Appeal of Ontario acknowledged, in R. v. Brown, the existence of racial profiling by the police. It also established that because of the difficulty in proving racial profiling directly, the courts can infer that racial profiling occurred based on the circumstances surrounding an event.
The case of Pieters v. Canada Customs and Revenue Agency, before the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal, resulted in groundbreaking settlement agreement with systemic remedies against Canada Customs for racial profiling of an African-Canadian. The settlement included provisions for Canada Customs to participate in a race-based data collection pilot project.
The F. O. v. Toronto District School Board case, before the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal, involved a human rights complaint alleging individual and systemic discrimination against African Canadian teachers in the promotional processes of the Scarborough Board of Education. Under a settlement, the school board agreed to collect data and to mentor racialized teachers.
The Ontario Superior Court decision in Smith v. Mardana Ltd. et al. set a precedent regarding the manner and standard of proof of racial discrimination in a poisoned work environment and the assessment of damages in human rights cases. It established that a claim of racial discrimination does not require proof of racial motivation. Race need only be a factor in discriminatory treatment.
In R. v. Spence the Supreme Court of Canada dealt with the issue of the right to challenge for cause on the basis of racial bias as an equality right in ÒinterracialÓ crimes. The ACLC argued that judicial notice be taken of the fact that racism extends beyond a White/Black paradigm. The decision left the door open for such a challenge with evidence.
In the case of Tranchemontagne & Werbeski v. Director, ODSP the Supreme Court of Canada affirmed that the Ontario Social Benefit Tribunal has the jurisdiction to consider the Human Rights Code in determining eligibility for income support under the Ontario Disability Support Program Act. It established an important principle that statutory tribunals empowered to decide questions of law are presumed to have the power to look beyond their enabling statutes in order to apply the whole law, including human rights law, to a matter properly before them.