Article content

The federal government has lived up to its obligation to “ascertain” that new legislation complies with the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the Federal Court of Canada ruled Wednesday, after a challenge from a former justice department lawyer who claimed the government was putting forward bills that weren’t properly vetted.

Edgar Schmidt claimed that successive ministers of justice and clerks of the privy council had not properly carried out their statutory duties to review bills and draft regulations to ensure provisions of that legislation did not breach guaranteed rights protected by the Charter and the Canadian Bill of Rights.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Federal court rejects claim that legislation under Harper government wasn't being properly vetted Back to video

The government argued it uses a “credible argument” vetting standard, which holds that any new legislation must be credible, bona fide and capable of being successfully argued before the courts.

Schmidt claimed the standard should instead be to look for aspects of legislation that are more likely than not inconsistent with guaranteed rights.