Sauvé v Canada (Chief Electoral Officer)
Supreme Court of Canada
Supreme Court of Canada
Hearing: December 10, 2001
Judgment: October 31, 2002
Full case nameRichard Sauvé v The Attorney General of Canada, the Chief Electoral Officer of Canada and the Solicitor General of Canada; Sheldon McCorrister, Chairman, Lloyd Knezacek, Vice Chairman, on their own behalf and on behalf of the Stony Mountain Institution Inmate Welfare Committee, and Clair Woodhouse, Chairman, Aaron Spence, Vice Chairman, and Serge Bélanger, Emile A. Bear and Randy Opoonechaw v The Attorney General of Canada
Citations[2002] 3 SCR 519; 2002 SCC 68
Prior historyAppeal from the Federal Court of Appeal
Court membership
Chief Justice: Beverley McLachlin
Puisne Justices: Claire L'Heureux-Dubé, Charles Gonthier, Frank Iacobucci, John C. Major, Michel Bastarache, Ian Binnie, Louise Arbour, Louis LeBel
Reasons given
MajorityMcLachlin CJ (paras 1–64), joined by Iacobucci, Binnie, Arbour, and LeBel JJ
DissentGonthier (paras 65–208), joined by L'Heureux‑Dubé, Major and Bastarache JJ

Sauvé v Canada (Chief Electoral Officer), [2002] 3 SCR 519 is a leading Supreme Court of Canada decision where the Court held that prisoners have a right to vote under section 3 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The Court overturned the prior decision of the Federal Court of Appeal and held that section 51(e) of the old Canada Elections Act, which prohibited prisoners serving a sentence of over two years from voting, was unconstitutional. Section 51(e) had been repealed before the date of the Court's judgment, but the decision applied equally to section 4(c) of the new statute, which was substantially the same. The Court ruled that the provision violated section 3 of the Charter and was not a reasonable limit under section 1.

As a result of the decision, all adult citizens living in Canada are now able to vote, save the top two officials of Elections Canada.[1] Relevant sections of the Canada Elections Act was amended in 2018[2] as part of the Elections Modernization Act.

See also

References

  1. ↑ CBC.ca, "Voter Toolkit," Canada Votes 2006. URL accessed 23 January 2006.
  2. ↑ Canada Elections Act, 2000, c. 9, Section 4 (c), Archived . Accessed 27 December 2019.


This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.