Siemens v. Manitoba (Attorney General)
Supreme Court of Canada
Argued October 31, 2002 Decided January 30, 2003
Full case name: David Albert Siemens, Eloisa Ester Siemens and Sie-Cor Properties Inc. o/a The Winkler Inn v. The Attorney General of Manitoba and the Government of Manitoba Citations: [2003] 1 S.C.R. 6; 2003 SCC 3 Prior history: Judgment for the Attorneys General in the Manitoba Court of Appeal Manitoba Court of Appeal The Manitoba Court of Appeal is the highest Court of Appeal in the Canadian province of Manitoba. It was established in 1906. It is located in the Old Law Courts building at 408 York Avenue in Winnipeg, the capital city of Manitoba... .
Holding
Court membership
Chief Justice Beverly McLachlin Puisne Justices Charles Gonthier Charles Gonthier Charles Doherty Gonthier, was a Puisne judge on the Supreme Court of Canada from February 1, 1989 to August 1, 2003. He was replaced by Morris Fish.-Early life:... , Frank Iacobucci Frank Iacobucci Frank Iacobucci, CC was a Puisne Justice on the Supreme Court of Canada from 1991 to 2004 when he retired from the bench. He is an expert in business and tax law.-Early career:... , John C. Major John C. Major John Charles "Jack" Major, CC, QC is a Canadian jurist and was a puisne justice on the Supreme Court of Canada from 1992 to 2005.... , Michel Bastarache Michel Bastarache J. E. Michel Bastarache is a Canadian lawyer, businessman, and retired puisne justice on the Supreme Court of Canada.... , Ian Binnie Ian Binnie William Ian Corneil Binnie was a puisne justice of the Supreme Court of Canada, serving from 1998 to 2011. Of the justices appointed to the Supreme Court in recent years, he is one of the few to have never sat as a judge prior to his appointment.- Personal life and career as lawyer :Binnie was... , Louise Arbour Louise Arbour Louise Arbour, is the former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, a former justice of the Supreme Court of Canada and the Court of Appeal for Ontario and a former Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda... , Louis LeBel Louis LeBel Louis LeBel is a puisne justice on the Supreme Court of Canada.LeBel was born in Quebec City. He was the son of lawyer Paul LeBel, Q.C. He went to school at the Collège des Jésuites, graduating with a BA in 1958 from College des Jesuites. He earned his law degree at Université Laval in 1962 and... , and Marie Deschamps Marie Deschamps Marie Deschamps is a puisne justice on the Supreme Court of Canada.-Education:She studied law at the Université de Montréal, graduating in 1974 and completing a Masters in 1983 at McGill.-Career:...  JJ.
Case opinions
Unanimous decision by: Major

Siemens v. Manitoba (Attorney General), [2003] 1 S.C.R. 6, 2003 SCC 3 is a leading Supreme Court of Canada

Supreme Court of Canada

The Supreme Court of Canada is the highest court of Canada and is the final court of appeals in the Canadian justice system. The court grants permission to between 40 and 75 litigants each year to appeal decisions rendered by provincial, territorial and federal appellate courts, and its decisions...

 decision on whether provincial plebiscite, used to determine if video lottery terminals (VLTs) should be banned from individual communities, are constitutional. The Court held that the plebiscites were a valid exercises of the province's power to legislate on matters "of a local nature" under section 92(16) of the Constitution Act, 1867

Constitution Act, 1867

The Constitution Act, 1867 , is a major part of Canada's Constitution. The Act created a federal dominion and defines much of the operation of the Government of Canada, including its federal structure, the House of Commons, the Senate, the justice system, and the taxation system...

, and that the plebiscite did not violate the rights of the VLT owners under sections 2(b)

Section Two of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms

Section Two of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms is the section of the Constitution of Canada's Charter of Rights that lists what the Charter calls "fundamental freedoms" theoretically applying to everyone in Canada, regardless of whether they are a Canadian citizen, or an individual or...

, 7

Section Seven of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms

Section Seven of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms is a constitutional provision that protects an individual's autonomy and personal legal rights from actions of the government in Canada. There are three types of protection within the section, namely the right to life, liberty, and...

 and 15(1)

Section Fifteen of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms

Section Fifteen of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms contains guaranteed equality rights. As part of the Constitution, the section prohibits certain forms of discrimination perpetrated by the governments of Canada with the exception of ameliorative programs and rights or privileges...

 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms

Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms

The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms is a bill of rights entrenched in the Constitution of Canada. It forms the first part of the Constitution Act, 1982...

.

Background

In 1998, the town of Winkler, Manitoba

Winkler, Manitoba

Winkler is a small city with a population of about 9,900 located in southern Manitoba, Canada in the Rural Municipality of Stanley...

 held a non-binding plebiscite in which it was decided to ban VLTs from the community. In 1999, the province of Manitoba passed the Gaming Control Local Option Act (known as the "VLT Act") which allowed municipalities to hold binding plebiscites to ban VLTs. The VLT Act contained a provision in section 16 which made the Winkler plebiscite binding which resulted in the Winkler Inn, owned by the Siemens, to shut down its VLT facilities.

The Siemens challenged the VLT Act on the ground that section 16 was ultra vires

Ultra vires

Ultra vires is a Latin phrase meaning literally "beyond the powers", although its standard legal translation and substitute is "beyond power". If an act requires legal authority and it is done with such authority, it is...

 the power of the provincial government's authority as it was a matter under the federal criminal law power, and that it violated their right to freedom of expression under section 2(b) of the Charter, their right to life, liberty, and security of person under section 7 of the Charter, and their right to equality under section 15(1) of the Charter.

The motions judge rejected the claims which was upheld by the Court of Appeal.

Justice Major, writing for a unanimous Court, held that the Act was a valid exercise of the provincial law-making power and it did not violate any section of the Charter.

Opinion of the court

Major first considered the issue of whether section 16 was validly enacted. He examined the pith and substance

Pith and substance

Pith and substance is a legal doctrine in Canadian constitutional interpretation used to determine under which head of power a given piece of legislation falls...

of both the legislation and the impugned provision. The purpose of section 16 of the Act was to prohibit VLTs in the town of Winkler and to cancel all existing "siteholder agreements" for those with VLTs in their establishment. Based on the legislative debates, the section was used to give effect to plebiscite that had already been held. The purpose of the Act as a whole was "to allow municipalities to express, by binding plebiscite, whether they wish VLTs to be permitted or prohibited within their communities."

The regulation of gaming and the allowance of local input both fall under section 92 of the Constitution Act, 1867. Section 16, which cancels "siteholder agreements" concerns property and civil rights which is a provincial power under section 92(13) of the Constitution Act, 1867. The Act as a whole gives power to the community to regulate VLTs consequently is considered a matter of a local nature under section 92(16).

Major rejected the argument that the law was a "colourable" attempt to enact criminal law. The Act did not contain the penal consequences required for valid criminal law nor was there a criminal law purpose for the Act. The moral aspect to the law was only incidental to the regulatory scheme.

Major rejected all of the Charter arguments. First, he dismissed the section 2 argument because although voting is a form of expression that is protected under the Charter it does not however include voting in a referendum as it was a creation of a statute. Second, he dismissed the section 7 argument as it has been well established that economic interests are not protected by the Charter and are not found within section 7. Lastly, he rejected the section 15 argument as the claimants failed to show that residence in a particular community or town is an "analogous ground" for discrimination.

External links

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