R V Boucher
   HOME

TheInfoList



Click Here for Items Related To - R V Boucher
OR:
R V Boucher on:   [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Amazon]

''R v Boucher'' is a
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 where the Court overturned a conviction for
seditious libel Sedition and seditious libel were criminal offences under English common law, and are still criminal offences in Canada. Sedition is overt conduct, such as speech and organization, that is deemed by the legal authority to tend toward insurrection a ...
on the grounds that criticizing the government was a valid form of protest.


Background

Aimé Boucher was a farmer in
Beauce, Quebec Beauce (; ) is a List of Quebec regions#Historical and Traditional, historical and traditional region of Quebec located south of Quebec City. It corresponds approximately to the Regional county municipality, regional county municipalities of Beauc ...
, and a practising
Jehovah's Witness Jehovah's Witnesses is a millenarian restorationist Christian denomination with nontrinitarian beliefs distinct from mainstream Christianity. The group reports a worldwide membership of approximately 8.7 million adherents involved in ev ...
. In 1946, he was arrested while distributing pamphlets entitled "Québec's Burning Hate for God and Christ and Freedom Is the Shame of all Canada." The pamphlets criticized the Québec government suppression of the Witnesses and the courts for doing nothing to prevent it. Boucher was charged for seditious libel — for endeavouring to promote public disorder — under section 133(2) of the
Criminal Code A criminal code (or penal code) is a document that compiles all, or a significant amount of a particular jurisdiction's criminal law. Typically a criminal code will contain offences that are recognised in the jurisdiction, penalties that migh ...
. At trial, the jury found Boucher guilty, which was upheld on appeal.''Boucher v. The King''
951 Year 951 ( CMLI) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Europe * King Berengar II of Italy seizes Liguria, with help from the feudal lord Oberto I. He re ...
SCR 265.


Opinion of the Court

In a 5 to 4 decision, the Supreme Court held that the mere publishing of critical statements, without any intention to incite violence against the government, could not be seditious libel.


See also

*''
Lamb v Benoit ''Lamb v Benoit'', 959SCR 321 was a legal case that was heard by the Supreme Court of Canada. Lamb, a Jehovah's Witness, was arrested for distributing religious pamphlets in Verdun, Quebec, in 1946, along with three other members of the religion ...
''


References

Canadian freedom of expression case law Supreme Court of Canada cases 1951 in Canadian case law Jehovah's Witnesses litigation Religion in Canada Canadian criminal case law Christianity and law in the 20th century Sedition {{JehovahsWitnesses-stub