View cases - Stewart McKelvey

[159] In addition, the Court was agreed that s. 2(d) protects an individual right to enter intoan association and does not create group rights that vest in the association itself. In the words ofDickson C.J. (dissenting):What freedom of association seeks to protect is not associational activities quaparticular activities, but the freedom of individuals to interact with, support, and besupported by, their fellow humans in the varied activities in which they choose toengage. But this is not an unlimited constitutional license for all group activity. Themere fact that an activity is capable of being carried out by several people together,as well as individually, does not mean that the activity acquires constitutionalprotection from legislative prohibition or regulation. [p. 366]2011 SCC 20 (CanLII)McIntyre J. struck a similar note:In considering the constitutional position of freedom of association, it must berecognized that while it advances many group interests and, of course, cannot beexercised alone, it is nonetheless a freedom belonging to the individual and not to thegroup formed through its exercise. [p. 397][160] In Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada v. Northwest Territories(Commissioner), [1990] 2 S.C.R. 367 (“PIPSC”), the core areas of agreement in the AlbertaReference were later summarized by Sopinka J. in a passage that has since been frequently cited:Upon considering the various judgments in the Alberta Reference, I have come tothe view that four separate propositions concerning the coverage of the s. 2(d)guarantee of freedom of association emerge from the case: first, that s. 2(d) protectsthe freedom to establish, belong to and maintain an association; second, that s. 2(d)does not protect an activity solely on the ground that the activity is a foundational oressential purpose of an association; third, that s. 2(d) protects the exercise inassociation of the constitutional rights and freedoms of individuals; and fourth, thats. 2(d) protects the exercise in association of the lawful rights of individuals. [pp.401-2]