What role does section 15 of the Charter play?

I start first with the role of s. 15, captioned “Equality Rights”. It guarantees the right to the equal protection and equal benefit of the law without discrimination and specifies several areas of discrimination. While stating that specified areas of discrimination are not exhaustive, this court emphasized in Andrews v. Law Soc. that a court must interpret s. 15 in relation to the other sections of the Charter and cautioned against according paramountcy to s. 15. In giving the judgment of the court, McLachlin J.A. said at p. 250: No one section should be regarded as paramount or as encompassing all of the other sections. That, however, may be what will become of s. 15 if it is interpreted as being violated by any distinction or unequal treatment. Section 15, like the 14th Amendment in the United States Constitution will dwarf the other provisions of the Charter and be the central issue in virtually all Charter litigation. Laws which do not violate any other fundamental right or freedom will almost always (if the United States experience is any guide) be alleged to violate s. 15 because the legislature classified or failed to classify. Even though legislation does not violate any other sections, it will always be required to run the gauntlet of ss. 15 and 1. In my view, this cannot have been the intention of the enactors of the Charter.