Litigating Positive Rights under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedom

📅 Friday, January 16, 2026 · 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. (ET)
📍Henry N. R. Jackman Faculty of Law, University of Toronto

More than two decades ago, in Gosselin v. Québec (Attorney General), the Supreme Court of Canada “left the door open” to the possibility that the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms might one day protect positive rights—rights that require governments to act, rather than merely to refrain from interference. Since then, however, Canadian courts have largely declined to walk through that door.

Yet the pressures of our time — from climate change and housing insecurity to healthcare access and digital regulation — are renewing the call to revisit what positive obligations the Charter might impose on the state.

Re-Opening the Door: Litigating Positive Rights under the Charter, jointly chaired by Cheryl Milne, Executive Director of the David Asper Centre for Constitutional Rights, and Professor David Schneiderman of the Jackman Faculty of Law, University of Toronto, will bring together leading scholars, practitioners, and emerging voices from across Canada and beyond to examine the evolving landscape of positive rights. Participants will explore both the theoretical foundations and the practical challenges of litigating these claims — and consider what a more robust vision of positive rights could mean for Canadian constitutionalism.

Panel discussions will address themes such as the conceptual divide between positive and negative rights, the litigation of social and environmental rights, the role of evidence and remedies, and comparative constitutional perspectives. A detailed agenda, including session titles and speakers, will be announced soon.

From climate justice to healthcare, from housing insecurity to the digital sphere, Canadians are confronting social problems that test the limits of a purely “negative rights” framework. The conversation about positive rights is, at its core, a conversation about the kind of constitutional community we want to be — one that merely prevents harm, or one that affirms and enables human dignity through collective responsibility.

This symposium will culminate in a forthcoming publication — the third book in the Asper Centre's series, published by Lexis Nexis Canada, following Public Interest Litigation in Canada (2018) and Litigating Equality in Canada (2023). Together, these volumes aim to advance practical scholarship on public interest and Charter litigation in Canada.

Located at the University of Toronto's Henry N. R. Jackman Faculty of Law, the David Asper Centre for Constitutional Rights is dedicated to advocacy, research, and education on constitutional rights in Canada. Since its founding in 2008, the Centre has convened leading conferences and symposia on issues central to public interest and Charter litigation, fostering collaboration among academics, practitioners, and students.

📍 Location: Jackman Faculty of Law, University of Toronto, Room P120
📅 Date: Friday, January 16, 2026 · 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. (ET)

A modest registration fee will be charged to help cover catering and event costs.
Reduced fees will be available for full-time students.
CPD accreditation will be sought for this program.

• Constitutional and public law practitioners
• Academics and students in law and political science
• Policy professionals and government counsel
• Public interest organizations and advocates
• Anyone interested in the evolving role of the Charter in addressing contemporary social challenges

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Host or Publisher The David Asper Centre for Constitutional Rights