Shane v. Canada
T-1678-96
Wetston J.
5/11/98
7 pp.
Amended statement of claim on grounds disclosing no reasonable cause of action, scandalous, frivolous, vexatious-Plaintiff seeking declaration Government of Canada's failure to enact legislation to prevent private citizens or private corporations from requesting or using social insurance number of other private citizens for any reason other than as the Government's duly authorized agent amounting to enactment of legislation allowing said activity, and thus can be challenged pursuant to Charter of Rights-Statement of claim should only be struck if plain, obvious discloses no reasonable cause of action: Federal Court Rules, 1998, r. 221(1)(a)-Fundamental question whether failure to legislate providing sufficient basis to argue Charter violation-Vriend v. Alberta, [1998] 1 S.C.R. 493 holding notion of judicial deference to legislative choices should not be used to completely immunize certain kinds of legislative decisions from Charter scrutiny-With respect to statement of claim, Government's failure to include protections of type advanced by plaintiff not within rationale of Vriend decision-For policy reasons unknown to Court, Government deciding not to legislate in manner alleged by plaintiff-Plaintiff agreeing if Vriend not applicable, statement of claim should be struck-Agreeing Charter challenge based on analysis in Vriend determinative-While Supreme Court of Canada leaving open question of positive obligation on legislature with respect to certain challenges under Charter, Vriend not applicable in context of issues raised by plaintiff's amended statement of claim-Plaintiff arguing Charter applies to actions of private citizens or private corporations due to failure of Government of Canada to legislate in this area-Defendant arguing actions of third parties independent of government action i.e. if actions causing violation of Charter, ss. 7, 8 occurring, not actions by government, but rather by third parties-Charter not applicable to acts of private citizen or private corporation who allegedly request, use social insurance numbers of other private citizens other than as duly authorized agents for Government-No reasonable cause of action flowing from allegations contained within amended statement of claim-Charter cannot be applied in such manner-Plaintiff having no standing-Not directly affected or having genuine interest in matter-Submitting possession of social insurance number, Canadian citizenship basis for standing-Amended statement of claim not demonstrating how directly affected, refused service, harmed by use of social insurance number-That did not wish to involve third parties by way of lawsuit not acceptable basis upon which to suggest not more effective way to bring matter before Court-Thus failing two of three criteria for having standing to bring public interest claim-While Canada's social insurance number system may have problems, this action not providing Court with any basis to allow action to proceed in order to ultimately impose obligation on Parliament to legislate-Application allowed-Federal Court Rules, 1998, SOR/98-106, r. 221(1)(a).