Supreme Court: Trade and Court

supreme court: Comeau and others argued that that decision offered too narrow an interpretation, and that it led to the proliferation of interprovincial trade barriers..... But the Supreme Court disagreed Thursday, ruling that section 121 does not impose absolute free trade across Canada, according to Rabble. The court said that section 121 prohibits laws restricting inter-provincial trade, but only where restricting trade is the laws' main purpose. A 1921 Supreme Court decision interpreted that to mean the products only had to be free from tariffs, not from other barriers such as limits on quantity. The court found that the primary purpose of New Brunswick's law was to prohibit holding excessive quantities of liquor from supplies not managed by the province. .... The court was also concerned with the potential far-reaching implications of taking away any province's power to control what comes across its borders. Public health-driven prohibitions and environmental controls, are the basis of Horgan's reference case and the judges singled out both as valid provincial concerns and areas of jurisdiction. The court said it would undermine Canadian federalism and throw into jeopardy agricultural supply management schemes, public health-driven prohibitions and environmental controls. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.