LAWS 4006 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Brian Dickson, Ultra Vires, Constitution Act, 1982
24 Dec 2016
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Laws4006a week 4: understanding s. 2a: v. big m drug mart ltd. The constitutional question put before the court was whether the act infringed the right to freedom of conscience and religion, if so, whether it is justified under section 1 of the. Charter, and whether the act was intra vires (within) parliament"s criminal power under section 91(27) of the constitution act, 1867. The supreme court ruled that the statute was an unconstitutional violation of section 2 of. The canadian charter of rights and freedoms, deciding that there was no true secular basis for the legislation and its only purpose was, in effect, to establish a state religious-based requirement, and was therefore invalid. Inasmuch as a corporation is not a natural person, it cannot have a religion and therefore the corporation"s religious freedom was not violated. Freedom of religion would also prohibit imposing religious requirements. Statute was an unconstitutional violation of s. 2 of the ccrf.
