An American citizen lawfully entered Canada and applied for permanent residence status. Pending consideration of her application, acting in good faith, she accepted employment but did so without obtaining a work permit as required by the Immigration Act 1985. She was subsequently laid off and submitted a claim for benefits under the Unemployment Insurance Act 1985. Her claim was rejected on the ground that the employment on which she relied in order to found her claim was prohibited under the Immigration Act. She appealed to the Federal Court of Appeal.
Held: The appeal succeeded. The employment without a work permit was expressly prohibited by the Immigration Act. Under what the court described as the ‘classical model’ of the illegality doctrine, the fact that the applicant acted in good faith was irrelevant; her employment under an illegal contract could not constitute insurable employment for the purposes of the Unemployment Insurance Act. However, it said that in recognition of the rigidity and oft-times unfair application of the classical illegality doctrine, the courts had developed several ways in which a party may be relieved of the consequences of illegality where appropriate. The difficulty with those exceptions arose from ‘the legal manoeuvring that must take place to arrive at what is considered a just result’.
‘As the doctrine of illegality rests on the understanding that it would be contrary to public policy to allow a person to maintain an action on a contract prohibited by statute, then it is only appropriate to identify those policy considerations which outweigh the applicant’s prima facie right to unemployment insurance benefits. . . While on the one hand we have to consider the policy behind the legislation being violated, the Immigration Act, we must also consider the policy behind the legislation which gives rise to the benefits that have been denied, the Unemployment Insurance Act.’
Citations:
(1997) 154 DLR (4th) 229
Jurisdiction:
Canada
Cited by:
Cited – Patel v Mirza SC 20-Jul-2016
The claimant advanced funds to the respondent for him to invest in a bank of which the claimant had insider knowledge. In fact the defendant did not invest the funds, the knowledge was incorrect. The defendant however did not return the sums . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Benefits
Updated: 30 April 2022; Ref: scu.676371