This argument confuses two different principles. To be sure, s. 32 of the Charter restricts its application to “actions of government”. But when the jurisprudence that interprets s. 32 speaks of “government action” or “government actors”, the emphasis is on the term “government”. That is to say, the actions of non-government actors are not subject to the Charter. The question of justiciability is something quite different. What is clear from the decision in Operation Dismantle v. The Queen, 1985 CanLII 74 (SCC), [1985] 1 S.C.R. 441, is that government policies may be subject to Charter review by the courts. And the ability to review the policy – the justiciability of the issue – is not dependent on whether the policy was acted upon.
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