See also Douglas, at p. 585.
41 While it is well established that the Charter applies to all the activities of government,
whether or not those activities may be otherwise characterized as "private", this Court has also
recognized that the Charter may apply to non-governmental entities in certain circumstances; see
generally Robin Elliot, "Scope of the Charter's Application" (1993), 15 Advocates' Q. 204, at pp.
208-9. It has been suggested, for example, that the Charter will apply to a private entity when
engaged in activities that can in some way be attributed to government. This possibility was
contemplated in McKinney, where I stated the following, at pp. 273-74:
Though the legislature may determine much of the environment in which universities operate,
the reality is that they function as autonomous bodies within that environment. There may be
situations in respect of specific activities where it can fairly be said that the decision is that of the
government, or that the government sufficiently partakes in the decision as to make it an act of
government, but there is nothing here to indicate any participation in the decision by the
government and . . . there is no statutory requirement imposing mandatory retirement on the
universities. [Emphasis added.]
I commented further on as follows, at p. 275:
I, therefore, conclude that the respondent universities do not form part of the government
apparatus, so their actions, as such, do not fall within the ambit of the Charter. Nor in establishing
mandatory retirement for faculty and staff were they implementing a governmental policy.
[Emphasis added.]
The idea that certain activities of non-governmental entities may be viewed as the
responsibility of government was further elucidated in my reasons in Lavigne where, after
discussing McKinney, Harrison, Douglas and Stoffman, I stated as follows, at p. 312:
The majority in the above cases relied solely on the element of control in determining what fell
within the apparatus of government, although it made clear that government may, in some
circumstances, be subject to Charter scrutiny in respect of activities in the private sector where
the government could be said to have some responsibility for that activity. [Emphasis added.]
42 It seems clear, then, that a private entity may be subject to the Charter in respect of certain
inherently governmental actions. The factors that might serve to ground a finding that an activity
engaged in by a private entity is "governmental" in nature do not readily admit of any a priori
elucidation. McKinney makes it clear, however, that the Charter applies to private entities in so far
as they act in furtherance of a specific governmental program or policy. In these circumstances,
while it is a private actor that actually implements the program, it is government that retains
responsibility for it. The rationale for this principle is readily apparent. Just as governments are
not permitted to escape Charter scrutiny by entering into commercial contracts or other "private"
arrangements, they should not be allowed to evade their constitutional responsibilities by
delegating the implementation of their policies and programs to private entities. In McKinney, I
pointed to Slaight, supra, as an example of a situation where action taken in furtherance of a
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