''R v Boucher'' is a

Supreme Court of Canada The Supreme Court of Canada (SCC; , ) is the highest court in the judicial system of Canada. It comprises nine justices, whose decisions are the ultimate application of Canadian law, and grants permission to between 40 and 75 litigants eac ...

decision. In the case, the Court overturned a conviction for

seditious libel Seditious libel is a criminal offence under common law of printing written material with seditious purposethat is, the purpose of bringing contempt upon a political authority. It remains an offence in Canada but has been abolished in England and ...

, on the grounds that criticizing the government was a valid form of protest.

Background

Aimé Boucher was a farmer in

Beauce, Quebec Beauce (; ) is a historical and traditional region of Quebec, Canada, located south of Quebec City. Most of it is part of the administrative region of Chaudière-Appalaches. It corresponds approximately to the regional county municipalities of ...

, and a practising

Jehovah's Witness Jehovah's Witnesses is a Christian denomination that is an outgrowth of the Bible Student movement founded by Charles Taze Russell in the nineteenth century. The denomination is nontrinitarian, millenarian, and restorationist. Russell co- ...

. In 1946, he was arrested while distributing pamphlets entitled "Québec's Burning Hate for God and Christ and Freedom Is the Shame of all Canada." The pamphlets criticized the Québec government’s suppression of the Witnesses and the courts for doing nothing to prevent it. Boucher was charged for seditious libel — for endeavouring to promote public disorder — under section 133(2) of the

Criminal Code A criminal code or penal code is a document that compiles all, or a significant amount of, a particular jurisdiction's criminal law. Typically a criminal code will contain offences that are recognised in the jurisdiction, penalties that might ...

. At trial, the jury found Boucher guilty, which was upheld on appeal.''Boucher v. The King''

951 Year 951 (Roman numerals, CMLI) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Julian calendar. Events By place Europe * King Berengar II of Italy seizes Liguria, with help from the feudal lord Oberto I. He reorganizes the territorie ...

SCR 265.

Opinion of the Court

The conviction was affirmed by a majority in the Court of King's Bench (Appeal Side). An appeal to this Court was allowed on grounds of misdirection and improper rejection of evidence. On the first hearing of this appeal, heard by a Court of five judges, the majority ordered a new trial. Application was then made, and granted, to have the appeal reargued before a full Court of nine judges. On the re-argument, it was conceded on behalf of the Crown that the conviction should be quashed due to errors in the trial judge's charge, and the only question which remained was as to whether there was evidence upon which a properly instructed jury could find the appellant guilty of publishing a seditious libel by reason of the publication of the pamphlet here in question.https://decisions.scc-csc.ca/scc-csc/scc-csc/en/item/2725/index.do In a 5 to 4 decision, the Supreme Court held that the mere publishing of critical statements, without any intention to incite violence against the government, could not be seditious libel.

References

Canadian freedom of expression case law Supreme Court of Canada cases 1951 in Canadian case law Jehovah's Witnesses litigation in Canada Religion in Canada Canadian criminal case law Christianity and law in the 20th century Sedition {{JehovahsWitnesses-stub

Background

Opinion of the Court

See also

References