In 1989, BCCLA and it then president, John Dixon, won the landmark voting rights decision of Dixon v Attorney General of British Columbia. In that case, the BC Supreme Court found that the electoral boundaries in BC were unconstitutional because the weight of each person’s vote varied too greatly throughout the province. This was the first time this legal issue had been addressed in Canada.

Now, the Supreme Court of Canada will be deciding on these same issues in Quebec v Lalande. This is a challenge to the Act to Interrupt the Electoral Division Delamination Process (“ATI”). In Quebec, an independent commission regularly reviews the province’s electoral maps and makes recommendations to ensure that voters’ right to effective representation is respected. The commission’s most recent review led to recommendations that several rural ridings be eliminated due to dropping population. Instead, the legislature passed the ATI, suspending the work of the commission until after the next general election. The Quebec Court of Appeal ruled that this violated the rights of voters in ridings with larger populations.

BCCLA is intervening in this case to present some of the same arguments we made decades ago in Dixon. There must be a strong presumption under the Charter of voter parity, meaning that everyone’s vote should be worth as close to equal as possible. Where governments want to depart from parity, for geographical, historical, practical or other reasons, there should be a strict requirement to justify this action. Nothing less will provide the fair and equitable electoral process that we all deserve.