The Great Depression caused Canada, like the United States, to take rather reactionary action to deal with the economic crisis.
In Alberta, the Social Credit Act of 1937 massively restructured the banking and credit system in many ways, the least not being a section that required that the press seek governmental approval of any coverage that could be construed as criticizing the Alberta government’s new policies. This legislation was challenged successfully in 1937, and a key decision handed down by the Supreme Court from that case was based on a distinction between fundamental rights (those that affect all Canadians) and local rights. It was indeed ruled that the rights given to free press fall into the latter category, and that Alberta crossed a line with the Social Credit Act of 1937.
In 1939, in the case of Christie v. York, a black man was denied service in a Halifax tavern because of the company policy of not service negroes. The police claimed they couldn’t do anything as it was a civil matter. The tavern used the common law rule that a merchant can arbitrarily refuse service due to freedom of contract. The Supreme Court ultimately decided that that the right of individuals were more important than the freedom of contract.
In 1945, the Supreme Court of Canada ultimately invalidated a covenant that restricted the selling of land to Jews and people of “questionable nationality”.
In the 1950s, there were three high-profile cases dealing with free speech, religion and association.
Saumur v. Cité of Québec dealt with the right of Jehovah’s Witnesses to distribute literature on city streets, which was originally considered sedition. In the case of Roncarelli v. Duplessis, Jehovah’s Witnesses also figured into the equation prominently – the case’s plaintiff, Frank Roncarelli, had lost his restaurant liquor license in 1947 for providing bail to a large number of Jehovah’s Witnesses that were arrested in Montreal. In Switzman vs. Elbling and Attorney-General of Québec , the case challenged the validity of the Padlock Act, which was an Act passed in 1937 hailing from the province of Quebec that was originally intended to prevent the dissemination of communist-deemed propaganda.
If you’d like more information about famous Canadian civil liberties cases, visit a library or better yet a law library. As for me, I’m heading off to play one of my favorite activities, online slots! Catch you on the flip!