Court destroys "spouse-in-house" rule. (News in Brief).

Toronto--'Discrimination' and 'human dignity' are the key words of the day in Ontario and another case highlighting them was publicized on May 13. On that day Justice John Laskin of the Ontario Court of Appeal, in conjunction with Madam Justice Kathryn Feldman, ruled as unconstitutional the Ontario government's "spouse-in-the-house" rule.

The rule, introduced in 1995 when the Harris PCs were first elected, stipulated that single parents would lose their welfare benefits if a 'partner,' who either provided financial support or split income and living costs, moved in with them. The Ontario justices claim that this rule is discriminatory because it "strips women of their dignity by forcing them to turn to a man, rather than the state, for help," (Nat. Post, May 12/02).

According to Justice Laskin, many single mothers were involved in "try-on-relationships" which, he posited, were improperly defined as 'spousal.' Previous to 1995, under the Bob Rae NDP regime, single parents could cohabit with an opposite-sex partner for three years and still collect full welfare benefits. Other clauses of the then Family Benefits Act were equally lax, and abuse of its provisions abounded. Most Ontario voters deplored this situation and voted in the Harris Tories with a mandate to crack down on it.

Since then, in addition to the 'spouse rule,' they have amended the Act to include such policies as workfare for able-bodied welfare recipients, drug and literacy testing and a lifetime ban on those who cheat over benefits.

Leftist social activists have continuously lobbied to overturn these changes in provincial law. After the success of this case, the group "Justice with Dignity" is preparing to contest the other legal restrictions on the receipt of welfare benefits. They are using the "hard case" of a pregnant single woman on a lifetime welfare ban for cheating the system (who died while under house arrest) to rouse public sympathy for their cause. They have expressed hope for a judge somewhere to strike down the other clauses of this law, formulated by the legitimately elected government of Ontario. The Ontario 1995 legislation has been a model for other provincial governments across Canada.

On May 27, Ontario Attorney General David Young announced that the province is appealing the ruling (Star, Globe, Post). As Rory Leishman pointed out in the London Free Press (May 29), this is another case where judges "under the pretence of upholding the Charter, have contrived to transform Canada into a veritable juridical dictatorship."