Case information

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Case summaries are prepared by the Office of the Registrar of the Supreme Court of Canada (Law Branch). Please note that summaries are not provided to the Judges of the Court. They are placed on the Court file and website for information purposes only.

Constitutional Law - Rule of law - Access to justice - Whether the principle of the rule of law may be relied on by the courts to strike down otherwise constitutionally valid legislation - Whether the decision of the Court of Appeal is inconsistent with other judicial decisions.

In 1993, the legislature of British Columbia passed the Social Service Tax Amendment Act (No. 2), 1993, S.B.C. 1993, c. 24 (the “Act”), which amended the Social Service Tax Amendment Act, 1992, S.B.C. 1992, c. 22, to require all purchasers or recipients of legal services provided in British Columbia to pay to the government a tax based on the purchase price of these services. The Act stipulates that the tax must be paid by the date on which the purchase price of the legal services is paid or payable, whichever is earlier.

Dugald Christie, the Respondent, challenged the constitutionality of the Act, alleging that it impedes or denies access to justice, contrary to the rule of law and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, because it: (a) is contrary to the right to employ legal counsel; (b) increases both the cost of legal services to the public and the cost of providing those legal services; and (c) is a tax on lawyers’ services for enforcement or protection of civil or criminal constitutional rights, and is thereby contrary to the right to employ legal counsel for the protection of those rights. Christie was granted a declaration that the 1993 Act was ultra vires the Legislature to the extent that it applied to legal services provided to “low income persons”. On appeal and cross-appeal, the majority of the Court of Appeal dismissed the appeal and allowed the cross-appeal in part. Christie was granted a declaration that to the extent that the Act purports to tax legal services related to the determination of rights and obligations by courts of law or independent administrative tribunals, it is unconstitutional as offending the principle of access to justice, one of the elements of the rule of law.