The appellants challenged a provincial commission of inquiry into alleged dealings between named private individuals, a corporation, and public officials.
The majority held that, in pith and substance, the inquiry functioned as a substitute police investigation and preliminary inquiry into a specific Criminal Code offence, thereby intruding on Parliament's exclusive jurisdiction over criminal law and criminal procedure under s. 91(27) of the Constitution Act, 1867.
The naming of private individuals, the close mirroring of s. 121 of the Criminal Code, and the inquiry's coercive powers were found cumulatively to render the Order in Council ultra vires.
The Court therefore allowed the appeal and did not decide the remaining Charter issues.
