Welcome to Cases That Should Have Gone to the Supreme Court of Canada, But Didn’t! This week, lawyer Kyla Lee discusses the problem that small fees such as printing and filing costs can have on someone’s ability to access the justice system.
Acumen Law Corporation lawyer Kyla Lee gives her take on a made-in-Canada court case each week, and discusses why these cases should have been heard by Canada’s highest court: the Supreme Court of Canada.
The example we’re using today is the case of a man named John Turmel. He’s famous for having grieved the results of more elections than any other person in Canadian history.
All the way back to the 1970s.
But what’s interesting to us isn’t the number of times he’s challenged election results. What happened was he had filed an appeal from a summary judgement dismissal of a constitutional challenge to a reimbursement cap on the cost of an election.
By the time he got to court of appeal, he was no longer in a financial position to afford to print out the documents necessary to complete his appeal.
All he had was his documents in a USB drive. Because of this, he was denied from being able to file his documents, and as a result his appeal was dismissed for delay in filing documentation.
This brings up a problem. Not everyone can afford the costs associated with accessing the justice system. For many, even the money required to print documents can be prohibitive to their access to justice.
In this case, Turmel had created all the necessary documents and prepared them digitally, and it’s another great example of how the courts need to keep up with changes in technology for the sake of those trying to access the justice system.
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