Singh v Minister of Employment and Immigration, Supreme Court of Canada, 1985

Who: Seven refugee claimants: Harbhajan Singh, Sadhu Singh Thandi, Paramjit Singh Mann, Kewal Singh, Charanjit Singh Gill, Satnam Singh and Indrani. Six were Sikh citizens of India and one was a Guyanese citizen of Indian heritage. The Federation of Canadian Sikh Societies and the Canadian Council of Churches intervened. Six judges of the Supreme Court of Canada decided the case.

What: Between 1977 and 1980 the seven claimed refugee status under Canada's 1976 Immigration Act. A claimant was questioned by an immigration officer and wrote a claim, and the department decided on the advice of the Refugee Status Advisory Committee; a refused claimant could appeal in writing to the Immigration Appeal Board. There was no oral hearing at any stage, and the Federal Court of Appeal refused review. Satnam Singh, who supported an independent Sikh homeland, Khalistan, fled India in the late 1970s amid political repression, Pier 21 says; the Board rejected his claim as not genuine and ordered his deportation, and in 1982 he challenged that under the Charter of Rights.

The claimants' lawyer, C.D. Coveney, argued that only an oral hearing could meet the principles of fundamental justice in section 7 of the Charter, and that "everyone" in section 7 meant everyone subject to Canadian law. The Government argued that non-citizens had no standing and that oral hearings would raise costs and the backlog. On 4 April 1985 the six judges split three to three but allowed the appeals. Justice Bertha Wilson, with Chief Justice Dickson and Justice Lamer, held that "everyone" covers every person physically present in Canada and that the procedure broke fundamental justice. Justice Beetz, with Justices Estey and McIntyre, reached the same result under the Canadian Bill of Rights. Claimants gained the right to a full oral hearing.

Where: Canada: the claims were made under Canada's immigration system and decided by the Supreme Court of Canada.

Why it mattered: Oral hearings needed more adjudicators and staff, a senior officer put the cost at about $3,500 a claim, and about 63,000 claimants became entitled to a hearing. The Government offered amnesty to those who had arrived before 21 May 1986 and met conditions, and created the Immigration and Refugee Board in 1989 (Pier 21). The Sikh Heritage Museum of Canada's timeline says an ad hoc Sikh Refugee Committee led to the Federation of Sikh Societies of Canada in 1979, and that the Federation's work "provided a landmark ruling".