Making Democracy Constitutional
Mr. Blaney and Assembly Members:
With colleagues in the Constitutional Test Case Centre of the
Faculty of Law, University of Toronto, I am presenting in Ontario
court a challenge to the Canada Elections Act based on the Charter
of Rights and Freedoms. It proceeds slowly.
As I argue in the attached article "Making Democracy
Constitutional," the principles involved are quite
simple. They apply with equal force to B.C. and other
provincial Elections Acts.
Please accept the article as a formal submission to the
Assembly. I hope members find our Charter perspective on voting
helpful in the Assembly’s path-breaking assignment.
We trust the BC Assembly will do that which the Law Commission
of Canada now recommends and the government of Canada resists:
square the voting system with the "equal and effective vote"
requirement of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Exactly how you do that will be of great interest across Canada
and beyond.
I am out of the country at the moment. My colleague Peter
Rosenthal at the University of Toronto will address follow-up
inquiries. I wish you well in your deliberations.
Yours democratically
Professor David Beatty
Faculty of Law
University of Toronto
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