Legal Issues in our Appeal

Over the past month or so, we've shared with you what the judge made of the evidence we presented in the Charter Challenge and laid out various objections we have related to his findings.

Starting today, we shift our attention to the legal arguments that we've made, and start discussing the various ways we feel that the judge "fell into error" in considering our case so that you'll have a better sense of what we're hoping to prove when we appear at the appeal in November.

Three Main Issues, Plus a Pre-Emptive Argument

In preparing our appeal, our lawyer, Nicolas Rouleau, identified that the judge "fell into error" in three main ways:

  1. Dismissing our Section 3 claims that First Past the Post (FPTP) infringes our rights to effective representation and meaningful participation
  2. How he treated our Section 15 (equality) claims
  3. Finding that the Constitution Act supports the constitutionality of FPTP

In addition, since the judge didn't find any violation of Sections 3 or 15 in his initial ruling, he didn't explore the question of whether the use of FPTP can be "saved" under Section 1 - i.e., if the government can argue that the violations we allege are somehow justified in the service of some other worthy goal that "can be demonstrably justified in a free and democratic society". Presuming that the appeal judges will reverse one or more of the initial judge's findings, Nicolas presented a pre-emptive argument as to why the infringements we claim can't be justified under Section 1.

In the coming weeks, we'll dive into each of these issues in more detail, but, in brief, much of our argument comes down to the judge having applied an overly narrow interpretation of what our right to vote includes, rather than adopting "the Supreme Court’s [more] “generous” and functional interpretation of s. 3, as outlined in its [previous] jurisprudence". More details on that next week.

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  • Springtide Chair
    published this page in Blog Updates 2024-08-18 17:41:57 -0300


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Key Events in the Case:

  • We're currently awaiting the appeal decision (expected in spring 2025)
  • We presented our appeal in the Court of Appeal for Ontario in November 2024
  • We submitted our appeal factum in April 2024.
  • We filed our Notice of Appeal in December 2023.
  • Justice Ed Morgan issued his ruling in November 2023 and unfortunately dismissed our application.
  • The case was heard in September 2023 in the Ontario Superior Court.
  • We received the government's affidavits in fall 2022.
  • We served the government with our affidavit and evidence package in May 2021.
  • We filed the case with the Ontario Superior Court in October 2019.

How you can help

The main way you can help is to support the case financially. We are now asking for pledges totalling $60,000 to support us appealing to the Supreme Court of Canada, if they grant us leave to appeal in mid-2025.

What to expect

At each step, we set new pledge or donation goals based on our estimate of the costs for the next stage of the process, and invite our supporters to contribute towards that goal to ensure the case can continue to move forward. We don't ask for or collect funds until we're sure we're going to take the associated step.