Who is behind this Charter Challenge?

A:

This project was initiated by Fair Voting BC. Fair Voting BC is a non-partisan non-profit society that works for fair voting systems for all elections held in British Columbia - including federal, provincial, and municipal elections. In the 2009 referendum on electoral reform in BC, Fair Voting BC FVBC served as the official proponent of the BC’s Citizens’ Assembly on Electoral Reform’s recommendation that we adopt the Single Transferable Vote (BC-STV)

In May of 2017, Springtide accepted an invitation from Fair Voting BC to collaborate on this project, as project manager and overseer of funds. Springtide is a Nova Scotia-based charity dedicated to non-partisan research, teaching and public engagement about democracy and politics in Canada, and defending democratic rights and freedoms. Springtide has published two papers on electoral reform - modelling four alternative electoral systems for Canada and Nova Scotia - and conducted public engagement and education workshops on electoral reform throughout Nova Scotia. 


Like and Follow

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Key Events in the Case:

  • The Supreme Court declined to hear our appeal in April 2026
  • We filed our reply to the government in November 2025
  • We submitted our application to the Supreme Court for leave to appeal in October 2025
  • Justice Huscroft dismissed our appeal in August 2025
  • We submitted a response in March 2025 re: the relevance of the SCC Working Families case
  • 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

What Now?

Unfortunately, now that Supreme Court has declined to hear our appeal, we have come to the end of the Charter Challenge. We are maintaining this website as a record of our efforts. Thank you to all who have supported us along the way. Note that we are still accepting contributions to support our ongoing work of filing interventions in various cases and educating the public about the impacts of how we currently vote. Please visit our Donations page if you would like to support this ongoing work.