Lerners case study: Ontario (Attorney General) v. Working Families Coalition (Canada) Inc., 2025 SCC 5
May 27, 2025
On May 22, 2024, our partner Debbie Boswell appeared before the Supreme Court of Canada on behalf of the David Asper Centre for Constitutional Rights. The Supreme Court has now released its decision in Ontario (Attorney General) v. Working Families Coalition (Canada) Inc., 2025 SCC 5.
Debbie has a strong interest in appellate advocacy and constitutional law. She worked with the Asper Centre while attending the University of Toronto for law school. Debbie had previously written about the Court of Appeal’s decision in one of her blog posts and was very grateful to be able to represent the Asper Centre before the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court dismissed the appeal and upheld the Court of Appeal’s decision. The majority concluded that the spending restrictions for thirty-party advertising violated the right to vote as guaranteed under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Our intervention focused on the impact of a change in legislation and whether a change in legislation can be relevant to the constitutional analysis. The previous version of the legislation included a six-month restriction on advertising spending, but it was then increased to twelve months. The Supreme Court’s decision that the legislation was not saved under section 1 aligned with our argument that evidence of the impact of the previous six-month restriction should be considered in determining whether the greater restriction was minimally impairing.
