R v Big M drug Mart 1985 R v Big M Drug Mart Sunday May 30 1982 Calgary Big M Drug Mart was pen for business and allowed several transactions The Lords Day Act 1906 s 4 it is not lawful for any person on the Lords Day Sundayto sell offer for sale or purchase any goods m ID: 545636
Download Presentation The PPT/PDF document "CLU3M Unit 2 Rights and Freedoms" is the property of its rightful owner. Permission is granted to download and print the materials on this web site for personal, non-commercial use only, and to display it on your personal computer provided you do not modify the materials and that you retain all copyright notices contained in the materials. By downloading content from our website, you accept the terms of this agreement.
Slide1
CLU3M Unit 2 Rights and Freedoms
R v. Big M drug Mart 1985Slide2
R v. Big M Drug Mart
Sunday, May 30, 1982- Calgary. Big M Drug Mart was pen for business and allowed several transactions
The Lord’s Day Act (1906)- s. 4- “it is not lawful for any person on the Lord’s Day (Sunday)…to sell offer for sale or purchase any goods, moveable possessions or other personal property”
Trial judge in 1983 dismissed the case on the grounds that the law was unconstitutional. Slide3
R v. Big M Drug Mart
Infringement of the Freedom of religion- if any law infringes a right or freedom it cannot exist.
The Crown appealed to the Alberta Court of Appeal- also dismissed
The Alberta Attorney general then appealed to the SCC
March 1985- The SCC had to decide if the Lord’s Day Act infringed Freedom of religion
The SCC also had to determine if the law could be saved as a reasonable limitSlide4
R v. Big M Drug Mart
Final decision April 1985
6-0 decision- the Lord’s Day Act infringed Freedom of religion and could not be saved as a reasonable limit by sect. 1
“If I am a
J
ew or
Sabbatarian
or a Muslim, the practice of my religion at least implies my right to work on a Sunday if I wish”
One religion cannot be protected
over othersSlide5
R. v. Oakes
1982 David Oakes- unlawful possession of a narcotic for the purpose of trafficking (s. 8)
Crown had to prove that Oakes had the drugs on him
It was up to Oakes to prove that he did not have them for trafficking
Oakes said this violated his presumption of innocenceSlide6
R. v. Oakes
Canadian legal tradition that the Crown proves guilt
Possible infringement of 11 (d)
First trial and the appeal was won in Oakes’s
favour
1986 SCC accepted Oakes’s argument ( He won!)Slide7
R. v. Oakes
Section 8 of the Narcotic Control Act could not be saved by sect 1.
The Oakes Test was born:
Does the law enforce an important government objective?
Proportionality: is there a connection between limiting a person’s rights and the objective of the law?
Does the law interfere with rights as little as possible?
Are the effects of the limit proportional to the objective?
The SCC ruled that there can never be an assumption of guilt based on irrational connections.
Every time we have a rights violation, the SCC must determine if the violation is reasonable using the Oakes TestSlide8
Framework for Charter Reasoning
1. Does the Charter apply (section 32)?
For there to be an violation of infringements of rights we must be dealing with federal or provincial law
2. Has there been an infringement or violation? If so, what sections of the Charter have been infringed?
3. Proportionality test: Is the infringement reasonable?
Does the law enforce an important government decision?
Is the reason of importance to Canadian society?
The measure carried out that violates the right must be logically connected to the purpose
Is the right limited as little as possible
This is how we justify that a violation of a right is reasonably limited and justified in
our society