Major Milestone! We’ve Submitted Our Factum!

We have an exciting update on the Charter Challenge for Fair Voting. On June 16th, we submitted our factum - the written argument of our case provided to the courts in advance of the hearing in September 2023. 

This important work followed our cross-examination of government witnesses over the winter and spring months. We are making tremendous progress on the case - none of which would be possible without the generous support of our Charter Challenge donors. 

Through our evidence package and factum we have produced strong evidence that half of eligible voters do not have effective and meaningful representation. While the factum will not be publicly available until late August, here are a few key highlights:  

  • This case is fundamentally about whether Canada’s highly disproportional method of translating votes into seats (“first past the post”) violates ss. 3 and 15 of the Charter, by failing to provide effective representation to all Canadian voters and by discriminating against women and minorities. 
  • Our case is based on the fact that Democratic theorists now agree that democracy requires more than simply voting and electing representatives. Representatives need to effectively represent voters and give them a real voice in the deliberations of parliament by actively supporting and promoting their views there . 

As we know, and have illustrated in the factum, our current system results in many negative outcomes, including the significant under-representation of minority perspectives, whether in terms of political views or identity. As such, we are asking the court to strike down the current election law and have the government implement a fair replacement. 

Thank you for your on-going support of the Charter Challenge - you are critical to the success of this case! 

Jesse Hitchcock, Springtide & Antony Hodgson, Fair Voting BC

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  • Jesse Hitchcock
    published this page in Blog Updates 2023-06-29 13:27:58 -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.