“Poverty has been characterized by our political leaders not as a serious and systematic problem, but an individualized phenomenon blamed on the poor themselves… who are depicted as responsible for their own misfortunes. Charter litigation, in this context, is then revealed not as a means of bypassing democratically elected governments… but rather as a mechanism for calling the legislative and executive branches to account for their failure to respect the basic rights and interests of a group which has been totally marginalized within our current political system.” [1]

Gosselin v. Quebec[2] demonstrates how a condescending, stereotypical view towards poverty has permeated both society and government to the point where a real examination of any economic issue is not even considered.

The application of the Charter[3] should have no barriers to economic issues experienced by individual persons. By limiting the application of section 7 to negative liberties and effectively preventing courts from imposing positive obligations onto the government, citizens are barred from gaining back any advantages lost to the capitalist market, leaving society confined to the framers’ inferred economic ideology.

If continued, this ideology will entrench the existence of poverty to ensure that it remains an institutional representation of individual failure.

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