Application for leave to appeal. Accused convicted of breach of a court order pursuant to s. 127(1) CC (peace bond). Accused had been prohibited from making uncivil comments about certain town counsellors in Drumheller. “The grounds upon which Ms. MacKinnon seeks leave to appeal … relate to the issue of the validity of the peace bond, given the alleged unconstitutionality of section 301 CC.”
Held: Leave denied.
The general principle is that a court order must be obeyed until there is an order to the contrary. “Public order demands that it [the order] be negated by due process of the law, not by disobedience”: Curragh [1997] 1 SCR 537. The legal requirement to challenge arguably defective orders (rather than simply breaching them) applies with equal force to orders that are alleged to be unconstitutional.
In person