Ontario (AG) v Canada Temperance Federation was a famous Canadian constitutional decision of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council and was among the first cases to examine the peace, order, and good government power of the Constitution Act, 1867. It was the first decision to bring back the "national concerns" branch of peace, order and good government since it was first suggested in the Local Prohibitions case.

Background

In June 1939, the Ontario government posed the following reference question to the Court of Appeal of Ontario: In presenting its case, Ontario argued:

Court of Appeal of Ontario

In September 1939, the majority of the Court of Appeal (Riddell, Fisher, McTague and Gillanders JJA) gave the following answer: Ontario appealed the ruling to the Privy Council.

Privy Council

The ruling was upheld by the Board. As to the arguments raised by Ontario, Viscount Simon for the Council also suggested that the federal power relating to peace, order and good government could be invoked for matters of "national concern:" This became the foundation of the "national dimensions" test.

Impact

Many decisions to follow struggled to reconcile the case with that of Russell and seem to give contradictory interpretations of the nature of "peace, order and good government." Though not expressly stated by Simon, the decision effectively overturned Russell. The "national concern" test was subsequently applied and elaborated on in Johannesson v. West St. Paul, Munro v. National Capital Commission, and R. v. Crown Zellerbach.