Using a Contextual Methodology to Accommodate Equality Protections along with the Other Objectives of Government (with Particular Reference to the Income Tax Act): Not the Right Answer, Stupid. The Best Answer

The article examines the judicial development of the Charter's equality provision. The author proposes a "middle-of-the-road" or contextual approach as the most preferable path for this development. He canvasses the approaches to either side of the "middle ground," those of the democrats and the civil libertarians. He argues that both of these more extreme positions should be discouraged in favour of the more "equivocal" contextual approach. After explaining how the contextual approach has arisen and been developed in recent Supreme Court cases, the author examines this methodology with respect to the interpretation of the Income Tax Act He then utilizes the methodology to resolve some difficult factual situations arising from application of the Income Tax Act.