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Mandatory Retirement: Intergenerational Justice and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 November 2009

Samuel V. Laselva
Samuel V. Laselva
Affiliation:
York University
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Abstract

This study explores two conceptions of justice and their radically different implications for mandatory retirement. The author argues that the case against mandatory retirement rests on a conception of justice which ignores the fact that a society is composed of different generations. Yet the neglect of this seemingly trivial fact leads to serious problems of intergenerational justice; and the note considers both how these problems can be accommodated within a theory of liberal justice, and the implications of that theory for mandatory retirement. The note then considers which of these two conceptions of justice is embodied in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. It argues that to ignore considerations of intergenerational justice in mandatory retirement cases amounts to a denial of the equal protection and the equal benefit of the law guaranteed by the Charter.

Résumé

Cette note étudie deux notions de justice et explore les différences radicales de leur portée pour la retraite obligatoire. L'auteur avance que les arguments contre la retraite obligatoire s'appuient sur une notion de justice qui ne tient pas compte du fait qu'une société est composée de plusieurs groupes d'âges. Ce désintérêt à l'endroit d'une considération apparemment insignifiante engendre plusieurs problèmes pour la justice entre les groupes d'âges. Le texte examine à la fois comment ces problèmes peuvent être incorporés dans une théorie libérale de la justice et quelles sont les conséquences de cette théorie pour la retraite obligatoire. La note considère ensuite quelle est, des deux notions identifiées de justice, celle qui est incorporée dans la Charte Canadienne des Droits et Libertés. L'auteur soutient enfin que le manque d'égards à la justice entre les groupes d'âges sape l'égalité de tous face á la protection de la loi qu'assure la Charte.

Type
Note
Information
Canadian Journal of Political Science/Revue canadienne de science politique , Volume 20 , Issue 1 , March 1987 , pp. 149 - 162
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Political Science Association (l'Association canadienne de science politique) and/et la Société québécoise de science politique 1987

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References

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2 Some arguments for and against mandatory retirement are considered in MacDonald, Robert M., Mandatory Retirement and the Law (Washington: American Enterprise Institute, 1978)Google Scholar; Gunderson, Morley and Pesando, James E., “Eliminating Mandatory Retirement: Economics and Human Rights,” Canadian Public Policy 6 (1980), 353–60CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Thomas Flanagan, “Age Discrimination in Canada,” The University of Calgary, Research Unit for Socio-Legal Studies, Occasional Papers Series (May, 1985), 4–38.

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9 A possible exception is the Charter's reasonable limits clause, although it seems likely that the rights protected by the Code are also subject (at least implicitly) to “reasonable limits.” See, generally, the Supreme Court decision of Regina v. Oakes (1986), 26 D.L.R. (4th) 200.

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