Survivor Benefits & Mirrors: NSCA Rejects S 15 Charter Challenge In Workers' Compensation Case

Introduction

Denying survivor benefits to a former spouse is not discriminatory, according to a recent Nova Scotia Court of Appeal decision. In Muggah v Nova Scotia (Workers' Compensation Appeals Tribunal), 2015 NSCA 63, the Court unanimously rejected a section 15 Charter challenge alleging that certain provisions of the Workers' Compensation Act discriminated between current and divorced spouses.

This case is a good reminder that section 15(1) requires a contextual analysis of substantive equality, not a one-for-one "mirror comparison." On a substantive equality analysis, the provisions of the Act that limit payment of survivor benefits to a spouse or member of the worker's family are constitutional. Former spouses can instead pursue remedies through family law.

Discrimination claim

Ms. Muggah ("the applicant") and Mr. Weichel ("the worker") divorced in 2008. Under their Corollary Relief Judgment, the worker was obligated to pay spousal support, and to maintain the applicant as a beneficiary on his life insurance policy. The worker was killed in a workplace accident in 2013. The...