The need to correct this error, the trial judge held, justified departing from this binding precedent. In doing so, the trial judge relied on testimony from a historian who opined that the Supreme Court of Canada's interpretation of section 121, set out nearly a century ago in Gold Seal Ltd v Attorney-General for the Province of Alberta (1921), 62 SCR 434, was inconsistent with the intentions of the Constitution's drafters. Comeau and therefore dismissed the charge. The New Brunswick Provincial Court found section 134(b) to be of no force and effect against Mr. Section 121 provides that "All Articles of the Growth, Produce or Manufacture of any one of the Provinces shall, from and after the Union, be admitted free into each of the Provinces." Comeau, who had been arrested after importing a large quantity of beer and liquor into New Brunswick from Quebec, challenged the constitutionality of the NB law on the basis that section 121 of the Constitution Act, 1867 renders section 134(b) of the Liquor Control Act unconstitutional and therefore of no force or effect. In R v Comeau, (popularly known as the "free the beer" case), the Supreme Court unanimously upheld the constitutional validity of a New Brunswick law restricting the importation of liquor from other provinces, while also commenting on the proper role of stare decisis in the common law courts. The decisions are not listed in rank order but, rather, grouped by subject-matter where possible. It's always a difficult task to select 10 (and sometimes we have to sneak a couple extra cases because they are just too important to exclude). The Supreme Court released 59 decisions last year, across a broad spectrum of legal subject-matter areas. This article summarizes the 10 most significant Supreme Court cases of 2018, as selected by Gowling WLG's Supreme Court of Canada Services Group.
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