[7] Counsel for the respondent relies upon a decision of the
Federal Court in Conacher v. Canada (Prime Minister), [2009]
F.C.J. No. 1136, 2009 FC 920, 311 D.L.R. (4th) 678 (F.C.),
refusing to grant an expedited hearing of the application on
the eve of an election where contraventions of the Charter were
being asserted. In that case, the court was of the view that
the issues were weighty, substantial and complex and needed to
be considered on the basis of a full factual record. The court
refused to order an expedited hearing of the application on the
merits.
[8] Counsel for the Attorney General argues that the
applicants could have brought this application in a more timely
way with adequate notice to the respondent and the court.
Counsel for the applicants submits that they could not have
brought this application prior to an election being called
because an application to challenge the constitutional validity
of a provision cannot be brought in a factual vacuum. They
contend that prior to the federal election being called, this
application would have been based on a hypothetical set of
facts without an evidentiary basis. They argue that they have
acted as expeditiously as possible.
Decision
[9] A court will not grant a constitutional declaration if an
issue is purely academic or hypothetical: see Smith v. Ontario
(Attorney General), [1924] S.C.R. 331, [1924] S.C.J. No. 15.
As Peter Hogg states in Constitutional Law of Canada, 5th ed.
(Scarborough, Ont.: Thomson Carswell, 2007) at vol. 2, p.
791:
A case is not "ripe" for decision if it depends upon future
events that may or may not occur. In that situation, the case
would involve a premature determination of what is still only
a hypothetical question. For example, a challenge to the
constitutionality of a bill that has not been enacted would
2011 ONSC 2281 (CanLII)
constitutional validity of s. 329 will take at least one to two
days and that there is insufficient time to allow for
preparation and argument to be done prior to the date set for
the election.