Egan v Canada

Egan v Canada
Supreme Court of Canada
Hearing: Argued November 1, 1994 Judgment: Decided May 25, 1995
Full case name	James Egan and John Norris Nesbit v. Her Majesty The Queen in Right of Canada
Citations	[1995] 2 SCR 513, 124 DLR (4th) 609, 12 RFL (4th) 201, 29 CRR (2d) 79, 96 FTR 80
Docket No.	23636 [1]
Prior history	Appeal dismissed by the Federal Court of Appeal.
Ruling	Appeal dismissed
Holding
The definition of "spouse" in section 2 of the Old Age Security Act, which excludes same-sex couples, is constitutional. Sexual orientation is a prohibited ground of discrimination under section 15 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Court membership
Chief Justice: Antonio Lamer Puisne Justices: Gérard La Forest, Claire L'Heureux-Dubé, John Sopinka, Charles Gonthier, Peter Cory, Beverley McLachlin, Frank Iacobucci, John C. Major
Reasons given
Majority	La Forest J, joined by Lamer CJ and Gonthier and Major JJ
Concurrence	Sopinka J
Dissent	Cory and Iacobucci JJ
Dissent	L'Heureux-Dubé J
Dissent	McLachlin J
Laws applied
Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, s 15, s 1; Old Age Security Act, RSC, 1985, c O-9 , ss 2, 19(1).

Egan v Canada, [1995] 2 SCR 513 was one of a trilogy of equality rights cases published by a very divided Supreme Court of Canada in the spring of 1995.^[2][3][4] It stands today as a landmark Supreme Court case which established that sexual orientation constitutes a prohibited basis of discrimination under section 15 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.