Reference Re Alberta Statutes - Background

Background

The province of Alberta, under the Social Credit government of William Aberhart had passed several laws as part of a series of reforms inspired by social credit economic theory. Arising from the 1937 Social Credit backbenchers' revolt, the Legislative Assembly of Alberta passed several Acts to implement the Social Credit agenda, to which royal assent was given:

• Credit of Alberta Regulation Act (requiring all bankers to obtain a license from the Social Credit Commission)
• Bank Employees Civil Rights Act (preventing unlicensed banks and their employees from initiating civil actions)
• Judicature Act Amendment Act (preventing any person from challenging the constitutionality of Alberta's laws in court without receiving the approval of the Lieutenant-Governor in Council)

In August 1937, the federal government disallowed all three Acts. The Supreme Court of Canada, in answering reference questions posed by the federal government, unanimously ruled that such disallowance was valid.

Following the disallowance, the Alberta legislature passed the following bills in October 1937:

• Bill No. 1 Bank Taxation Act (levying provincial taxes on banks' paid-up capital and reserve funds at punitive rates)
• Bill No. 8 Credit of Alberta Regulation Act, 1937 (similar to the previous disallowed Act, but covering all "credit institutions")
• Bill No. 9 Accurate News and Information Act (requiring newspapers to print "clarifications" of stories considered inaccurate by the Social Credit Board, and to reveal their sources on demand, and also authorizing the provincial government to prohibit the publication of any newspaper, any article by a given writer, or any article making use of a given source)

All bills were reserved by Lieutenant-Governor John C. Bowen. As a result, the federal government posed the following reference questions to the Supreme Court as to whether it was intra vires the provincial legislature to pass any of those measures.