Alberta court overtuns no-fault auto

            The decision of the Associate Chief Justice of Alberta earlier this year striking down legislation on constitutional grounds, represents a legal blow against no-fault auto insurance across Canada.  This is a huge victory for coalitions against no-fault across the country, who have opposed various no-fault auto laws on the grounds that they deny fair compensation to victims of automobile accidents.

            In February, the Alberta court ruled that Alberta’s no-fault laws were aimed in a discriminatory fashion against victims of soft tissue injuries, and that the law should be struck down.

             The Coalition Against No-Fault in Newfoundland argued that such laws would be unconstitutional, during the debate over auto insurance which lasted from 2001 to 2004 here in this province.  Similar arguments were made by consumer groups in the other Atlantic Provinces.  However, governments pay no attention to constitutional rights when votes are at stake.  Ultimately, public opinion in Newfoundland did not favor significant changes to the right to compensation for automobile injuries in Newfoundland and Labrador, and the Williams Government made changes to legislation which amounted to tinkering.  Elsewhere in Atlantic Canada governments were stampeded by the insurance industry into making significant and discriminatory changes against the rights of injury victims.  In the wake of the Alberta decision, these laws are under legal siege. 

             The Alberta decision found that the Alberta law violated the equality clause of the Charter on the basis that it “sacrifices the dignity of minor injury victims at the alter of reducing insurance premiums….  Specifically, the message is that their pain is not as worthy of conventional non-pecuniary damages because of the nature of their injuries, despite that their injuries may be more painful and enduring than other types of injuries.”

             Constitutional challenges have been mounted against similar laws in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island by coalitions of injury victims.  The challenge in Nova Scotia is the most advanced, and will probably come to court this fall. 

             I wrote about this constitutional issue five years ago.  I thought that no-fault laws might be struck down as constituting prejudice against a defined group on the basis of disability and burdening that group with the lion’s share of reducing insurance premiums.  Defined groups such as those challenged on the basis of physical and mental disability and gender.  Now a court has agreed.  To read the decision of the Alberta court, click here.

            I am sure that members of the Coalition Against No-Fault will be pleased to see that their opposition to discriminatory automobile insurance laws has been vindicated by an independent court.  These discriminatory no-fault laws are unconstitutional.