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Does Age Matter?: Law and Relationships Between Generations
ABOUT THIS PROJECT
Summary
Age is often used as a distinguishing characteristic in Canadian law. Many benefits are awarded and obligations or restrictions imposed on the basis of age. Examples include: voting age, mandatory retirement, consent to health care and insurance rates. Where laws provide benefits or impose obligations based on categories or groupings of people, these may be too narrow or too sweeping with the result that the law's objectives are not being met. This can cause resentment and unfairness among the groups being excluded or over included. The use of categories, in this case, age distinctions, can also lead people to focus on the differences between categories rather than the elements they have in common. Laws and policies can also have an impact on intergenerational relationships within families. The Law Commission of Canada wants to encourage governments and other institutions to review their use of age as a criterion in laws and the administration of laws to ensure that they are achieving their objectives and are appropriately targeted to the right population; that they aren't using false categories based on stereotypes of certain age groups or assumptions about a standard life course. For a more complete description of the project, click on the following link: Description of Does Age Matter? Project Contact the Law Commission of Canada Copies of the discussion paper and a short pamphlet are available at the Law Commission's web site or you may order hard copies through info@lcc.gc.ca or by writing to us at:
Law Commission of Canada
1124 - 222 Queen Street
Ottawa, Ontario, K1A 0H8 Talk to your family members, your work colleagues and your friends. The Law Commission wants to encourage discussion of these issues and hear your views so that law reform can truly reflect the needs of Canadians. THE PUBLIC CONSULTATION PROCESS WILL CONTINUE UNTIL THE END OF APRIL 2005. | 
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