''Alberta v Hutterian Brethren of Wilson Colony'', 2009 SCC 37,

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2 SCR 567 is a

freedom of religion Freedom of religion or religious liberty is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or community, in public or private, to manifest religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship, and observance. It also includes the freedom ...

decision by the

Supreme Court of Canada The Supreme Court of Canada (SCC; french: Cour suprême du Canada, CSC) is the Supreme court, highest court in the Court system of Canada, judicial system of Canada. It comprises List of Justices of the Supreme Court of Canada, nine justices, wh ...

. The court addressed whether a requirement that all licensed drivers be photographed unconstitutionally violated the

Hutterites Hutterites (german: link=no, Hutterer), also called Hutterian Brethren (German: ), are a communal ethnoreligious group, ethnoreligious branch of Anabaptism, Anabaptists, who, like the Amish and Mennonites, trace their roots to the Radical Refor ...

' right to freedom of religion.

Background

The Hutterites believe that they cannot consent to being photographed. Previously, an exception had been made from the photograph requirement by the Alberta government. However, the government now keeps the photographs in a large database to prevent identity theft, and ended the exemption. Alberta claimed that making a constitutional exception for the Hutterites would undermine its attempts to prevent such fraud. The

Alberta Court of Appeal The Court of Appeal of Alberta (frequently referred to as Alberta Court of Appeal or ABCA) is a Canadian appellate court. Jurisdiction and hierarchy within Canadian courts The court is the highest in Alberta, Canada. It hears appeals from the ...

found for the Hutterites.

Opinion of the Court

The Alberta government conceded that this was a violation of the Hutterites' religious freedom protected under section 2 of the ''

Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms The ''Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms'' (french: Charte canadienne des droits et libertés), often simply referred to as the ''Charter'' in Canada, is a bill of rights entrenched in the Constitution of Canada, forming the first part o ...

'', but argued this violation was allowable under section 1's "reasonable limits" on ''Charter'' rights. The Hutterites maintained that this was an unreasonable limit. Chief Justice McLachlin, writing for the majority, found the law constitutional. She found that the government's need to fight fraud was pressing, and that driving was not a right, so the government was entitled to attach legitimate conditions to it. Three justices dissented and would have not required the Hutterites to be photographed to be licensed. In three separate opinions, Justices

Abella Abella, often known as Abella of Salerno or Abella of Castellomata, was a physician in the mid fourteenth century. Abella studied and taught at the Salerno School of Medicine. Abella is believed to have been born around 1380, but the exact time o ...

, LeBel and

Fish Fish are aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish as well as various extinct related groups. Approximately 95% of li ...

found that this policy was not minimally impairing, since it would not significantly enable identity theft to allow the exceptions, and it would have a large detrimental effect on the Hutterites' way of life, since they would have to employ outsiders to perform all their necessary driving.

External links

*
Centre for Constitutional Studies: Alberta v. Hutterian Brethren of Wilson Colony (2009)
Section Two Charter case law Canadian freedom of religion case law Supreme Court of Canada cases Hutterites in Canada 2009 in Canadian case law Identity documents of Canada Driving licences Works about photography Alberta litigation {{Canada-law-stub