''Haig v Canada (Chief Electoral Officer)''

993 Year 993 ( CMXCIII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Europe * Spring – The 12-year-old King Otto III gives the Sword of Saints Cosmas and Damian ...

2 S.C.R. 995 is a leading

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 ...

decision on the protection of the right to vote under section 3 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 ...

Background

Graham Haig had moved from

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Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

during the summer of 1992. As it happened, this was also the summer of the

Charlottetown Accord The Charlottetown Accord (french: Accord de Charlottetown) was a package of proposed amendments to the Constitution of Canada, proposed by the Canadian federal and provincial governments in 1992. It was submitted to a public referendum on October ...

where each citizen was given the opportunity to vote on whether to adopt the constitutional amendments. Due to his move he was ineligible to vote in either province. The Elections Act provided that the voter must reside in the district on the day of enumeration. For Quebec voters were required to live in the province for the last six months. On enumeration day he was in Quebec and thus was unable to vote. In September Haig brought an application against the Queen and the Chief Electoral Officer for a declaration under section 3 of the Elections Act on the basis that his ineligibility was in violation of sections 2(b), 3, 6, and 15(1) of the Charter. The Federal Court rejected the Charter claim which was upheld by the Federal Court of Appeal. Further the claim against the Queen was dropped. The issues before the Supreme Court was: # Whether the exclusion of persons in Haig's position from voting in the referendum violate sections 2(b), 3 and 15(1) of the Charter. #Whether any violation can be saved under section 1.

Opinion of the Court

The Court held that there were no violations of the Charter. L'Heureux-Dube J. wrote the majority, with La Forest, Sopinka, Gonthier, and Major JJ. concurring. Both Cory J. and Mclachlin J. wrote separate concurring opinions. Lamer C.J. and Iaccobucci J. each had separate dissenting opinions.

External links

*
Case summary at mapleleafweb.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Haig V. Canada Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms case law Supreme Court of Canada cases 1993 in Canadian case law Supreme Court of Canada case articles without infoboxes