In Toronto (City) v. Ontario (Attorney General), 2021 SCC 34, Justice Abella, writing in dissent, asserts that: "the distinction between positive and negative rights is an unhelpful lens for adjudicating Charter claims. During nearly four decades of Charter litigation, this Court has recognized that rights and freedoms have both positive and negative dimensions. That recognition has led the Court to adopt a unified purposive approach to rights claims, whether the claim is about freedom from government interference in order to exercise a right, or the right to governmental action in order to get access to it. To paraphrase Gertrude Stein, a right is a right is a right. The threshold does not vary with the nature of the claim to a right. Each right has its own definitional scope and is subject to the proportionality analysis under s. 1 of the Charter...All rights have positive dimensions since they exist within, and are enforced by, a positive state apparatus...They also have negative dimensions because they sometimes require the state not to intervene. The distinction 'is notoriously difficult to make Appropriate verbal manipulations can easily move most cases across the line . What is the significance of this statement?

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Justice Abellas assertion in Toronto City v Ontario Attorney General 2021 SCC 34 particularly regarding the unhelpfulness of the distinction between p... View the full answer