Charter remedy

A Charter remedy is the relief a court grants when a right under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms has been infringed. Under s. 24(1), a court may grant any remedy it considers appropriate and just in the circumstances, ranging from damages to a stay of proceedings. Under s. 24(2), evidence obtained in breach of the Charter may be excluded where its admission would bring the administration of justice into disrepute, applying the framework from R. v. Grant, 2009 SCC 32. Separately, s. 52 of the Constitution Act, 1982 renders unconstitutional laws of no force or effect, supporting remedies such as striking down or reading in.

Remedy selection is often as contested as the breach itself. In criminal practice, exclusion of evidence and stays for unreasonable delay (following R. v. Jordan, 2016 SCC 27) are among the most consequential outcomes. Note also that a law limiting a right may still be upheld if the government justifies the limit under s. 1 through the proportionality test from R. v. Oakes, [1986] 1 S.C.R. 103, in which case no remedy issues.