Reference re Provincial Electoral Boundaries
Canada Supreme Court
2 S.C.R. 158 (1991)
- Written by Mary Katherine Cunningham, JD
Facts
The Canadian Representation Act of 1989 created electoral boundaries for all the provinces. The Canadian Supreme Court received a referral related to a constitutional challenge on appeal to the provincial electoral distribution of Saskatchewan. The suit challenged the requirement to draw electoral districts to coincide with municipal boundaries and distinguished between urban and rural districts. In the referral, the court received submissions arguing that the right to vote enshrined in § 3 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms (the charter) permitted only limited deviations from the one-person, one-vote rule. The minister of justice of the Northwest Territories also filed a submission, asserting that the supreme court could not consider the challenge at all and agreeing that the charter did not apply to provincial elections. The minister of justice of the Northwestern Territories further argued that the court could not consider questions of voter equality within provincial elections because such principles were impervious to judicial review.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (McLachlin, J.)
Dissent (Cory, J.)
What to do next…
Here's why 815,000 law students have relied on our case briefs:
- Written by law professors and practitioners, not other law students. 46,300 briefs, keyed to 988 casebooks. Top-notch customer support.
- The right amount of information, includes the facts, issues, rule of law, holding and reasoning, and any concurrences and dissents.
- Access in your classes, works on your mobile and tablet. Massive library of related video lessons and high quality multiple-choice questions.
- Easy to use, uniform format for every case brief. Written in plain English, not in legalese. Our briefs summarize and simplify; they don’t just repeat the court’s language.