R. v. Boucher

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R. v. Boucher

Hearing:
Judgment: December 18, 1950


Full case name:	'
Citations:	[1951] S.C.R. 265

Court membership

Chief Justice: Thibaudeau Rinfret
Puisne Justices: Patrick Kerwin, Robert Taschereau, Ivan Rand, Roy Kellock, James Wilfred Estey, Charles Holland Locke, John Robert Cartwright, Gerald Fauteux

Reasons given

Majority by: Kerwin J. (pp. 277-283)
Concurrence by: Rand J. (pp. 283-292)
Concurrence by: Kellock J. (pp. 292-305)
Concurrence by: Estey J. (pp. 305-315)
Concurrence by: Locke J. (pp. 315-331)
Dissent by: Rinfret C.J.
Dissent by: Taschereau J. (pp. 283-284)
Dissent by: Cartwright J. (pp. 331-345)
Joined by: Fauteux J.

R. v. Boucher [1951] S.C.R. 265 is a famous Supreme Court of Canada decision where the Court overturned a conviction for seditious libel on the grounds that criticizing the government was a valid form of protest.

[edit] Background

Aimé Boucher was a farmer in Beauce, Québec, and a practicing Jehovah's Witness. In 1951, he was arrested while distributing pamphlets entitled "Québec's Burning Hate for God and Christ and Freedom Is the Shame of all Canada" that criticized the Québec government suppression of the Witnesses and the courts for doing nothing to prevent. Boucher was charged for seditious libel - for endeavouring to promote public disorder - under section 133(2) of the Criminal Code of Canada.

At trial, the jury found Boucher guilty, which was upheld on appeal.

[edit] Opinion of the Court

In a 5 to 4 decision, the Court held that mere published of critical statements, without any intention to incite violence against the government, could not be seditious libel.