The Supreme Court of Canada has upheld sections 1 to 7 of the
Genetic Non-Discrimination Act (the Act) as a valid
exercise of the federal criminal law power 1. Among
other things, the Act prohibits individuals and corporations from
forcing individuals to disclose the results of genetic tests as a
condition of obtaining access to goods, services or contracts. On a
reference by the government of Québec, the Québec
Court of Appeal held that sections 1 to 7 of the Act were ultra
vires Parliament's criminal law power because they
lacked any real criminal law purpose. In a 5-4 decision, the
Supreme Court of Canada reversed the Québec ruling (Torys
acted for the Canadian Life and Health Insurance Association, who
intervened in the case).
