R. v. Bryan

R v Bryan
Supreme Court of Canada
Hearing: October 16, 2006 Judgment: March 15, 2007
Full case name	Paul Charles Bryan v. Her Majesty the Queen and Attorney General of Canada
Citations	2007 SCC 12, [2007] 1 S.C.R. 527
Docket No.	31052
Prior history	Judgment for the Crown and the Attorney General of Canada in the British Columbia Court of Appeal.
Ruling	Appeal dismissed.
Holding
Section 329 of the Canada Elections Act is constitutional and justified under section 1 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Court Membership
Chief Justice: Beverley McLachlin Puisne Justices: Michel Bastarache, Ian Binnie, Louis LeBel, Marie Deschamps, Morris Fish, Rosalie Abella, Louise Charron, Marshall Rothstein
Reasons given
Majority	Bastarache J. (paras. 1-53)
Concurrence	Fish J. (paras. 54-82)
Concurrence	Deschamps, Charron and Rothstein JJ. (para. 83)
Dissent	Abella J. (paras. 84-134), joined by McLachlin C.J., and Binnie and LeBel JJ.

R v Bryan 2007 SCC 12 is a decision by the Supreme Court of Canada on freedom of expression and Canadian federal elections. The Court upheld a law that prevented the publicizing of election results from some ridings before the polls closed in others.

The law was later repealed by a vote in parliament in October 2015, prior to the 2015 Canadian federal election, citing the increased use of social media.

Section 329 of the Canada Elections Act outlawed publishing election results from other ridings in constituencies where polls were still open. However, in the federal election in 2000, one Paul Charles Bryan published results from Atlantic Canada on the Internet despite being told not to by the authorities. Bryan was charged before the Provincial Court of British Columbia, but fought the charges as unconstitutional under section 2 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which protects freedom of expression and freedom of association. Bryan's victory before the British Columbia Supreme Court meant that voters in British Columbia legally learned of election results in other ridings during the federal election in 2004. However, Bryan lost his case before the British Columbia Court of Appeal.

Stephen Harper, who later became prime minister, labelled Elections Canada "jackasses" and tried to raise money for Bryan. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation also supported Bryan, hoping to "make election night a bigger event that [sic] it already is."