Canadian Foundation for Children, Youth and the Law v Canada (AG)

Canadian Foundation for Children, Youth and the Law v Canada (AG)
Supreme Court of Canada
Hearing: June 6, 2003 Judgment: January 30, 2004
Full case name	Canadian Foundation for Children, Youth and the Law v. Attorney General in Right of Canada
Citations	[2004] 1 S.C.R. 76, 2004 SCC 4
Docket No.	29113 [1]
Prior history	Judgment for the Attorney General of Canada in the Court of Appeal for Ontario.
Ruling	Appeal dismissed.
Holding
Section 43 of the Criminal Code (which allows parents and teachers to use force to correct a child's behaviour) does not infringe the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, provided the section is interpreted as follows: (1) The force must be intended to actually correct the child's behaviour. (2) The force cannot result in harm or the prospect of harm.
Court membership
Chief Justice: Beverley McLachlin Puisne Justices: Charles Gonthier, Frank Iacobucci, John C. Major, Michel Bastarache, Ian Binnie, Louise Arbour, Louis LeBel, Marie Deschamps
Reasons given
Majority	McLachlin C.J. (paras. 1-70), joined by Gonthier, Iacobucci, Major, Bastarache and LeBel JJ.
Concur/dissent	Binnie J. (paras. 71-130)
Dissent	Arbour J. (paras. 131-211)
Dissent	Deschamps J. (paras. 212-246)

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Canadian Foundation for Children, Youth and the Law v Canada (AG), [2004] 1 S.C.R. 76, 2004 SCC 4 – known also as the spanking case – is a leading Charter decision of the Supreme Court of Canada where the Court upheld section 43 of the Criminal Code that allowed for a defence of reasonable use of force by way of correction towards children as not in violation of section 7, section 12 or section 15(1) of the Charter.