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Canadian Constitution Foundation  R. v. Kapp
For the second time in 70 years, the Supreme Court of Canada heard the case for racial equality presented on behalf of fishermen of Japanese ancestry, this time in R. v. Kapp.
In the 1920s, an association of Japanese Canadian fishermen intervened before the Supreme Court of Canada to argue against the federal government’s race-based licensing policies in B.C.’s commercial fishery. In 1928, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled in Reference Re: Fisheries Act, that “any British subject residing in the
Fishermen of Japanese ancestry are hoping the Supreme Court of Canada will reaffirm its 1928 Reference Re: Fisheries Act decision in R. v. Kapp, a constitutional challenge to race-based commercial fisheries which the federal government created in 1992.
John Carpay had the honour of representing the Japanese Canadian Fishermens Association before the Supreme Court of Canada on December 11, 2007. On, June 27 of 2008, the Supreme Court of Canada handed down its decision, ruling in favour of the government policies that supported racially segregated commercial fisheries in British Columbia. Their decision, which reversed an early SCC decision made in 1928, was a huge blow to both the Japanese Canadian Fishermens Association and racial equality as a whole. The SCC cited "substantive equality" as the main reason for the direction of their ruling. |
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