Quebec (AG) v Canada (AG)
| Quebec (AG) v Canada (AG) | |
|---|---|
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| Hearing: 8 October 2014 Judgment: 27 March 2015 |
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| Full case name | Attorney General of Quebec v Attorney General of Canada, Commissioner of Firearms and Registrar of Firearms |
| Citations | 2015 SCC 14 |
| Docket No. | 35448 |
| Prior history | APPEAL from Canada (Procureur général) v Québec (Procureur général) 2013 QCCA 1138 |
| Ruling | Appeal dismissed. |
| Court Membership | |
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Chief Justice: Beverley McLachlin Puisne Justices: Rosalie Abella, Marshall Rothstein, Thomas Cromwell, Michael Moldaver, Andromache Karakatsanis, Richard Wagner, Clément Gascon |
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| Reasons given | |
| Majority | Cromwell and Karakatsanis JJ, joined by McLachlin CJ and Rothstein and Moldaver JJ |
| Dissent | LeBel, Wagner and Gascon JJ, joined by Abella J |
Quebec (AG) v Canada (AG) 2015 SCC 14 is a Canadian constitutional law case concerning the federal government's ability to destroy information related to the Canadian long-gun registry pursuant to the federal criminal law power.
In 1995, Parliament passed the Firearms Act, which required long gun owners to register their guns. The Supreme Court found that the Act was within the federal criminal law power. In 2012, Parliament repealed the requirement to register long guns through the Ending the Long-gun Registry Act (ELRA) and sought to delete the information in its registry. The province of Quebec, wishing to create and maintain its own long gun registry, requested that the federal government share the data it had collected about Quebec long gun owners. When the federal government declined to share the information, Quebec argued that section 29 of the ELRA, the provision disbanding the long gun registry, was beyond the powers of the federal government.
At trial in the Superior Court of Quebec, the trial judge found that section 29 was unconstitutional as it violated the principle of cooperative federalism given that Quebec had taken part in "gathering, analyzing, organizing, and modifying" the data in question. The trial judge required the federal government to share the information with Quebec.
Upon appeal to the Court of Appeal of Quebec, Hesler CJQ, writing for a unanimous court, allowed the appeal, holding that since the federal government had the power to create the firearm registry per the Reference re Firearms Act, they would also have the power to dismantle it.
The Supreme Court was sharply divided on the matter. A five-justice majority found that section 29 of the ELRA was intra vires the federal government, while the four dissenting judges would have found it unconstitutional.
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