The appellants brought a motion to introduce fresh evidence of legislative fact, including statistics, newspaper articles, and reports, in a constitutional appeal regarding school boards.
The Supreme Court of Canada dismissed the motion, holding that the traditional Palmer test for fresh evidence applies to legislative facts, albeit with less stringent admissibility requirements.
The Court found that the appellants failed to meet the due diligence requirement for much of the evidence, the newspaper articles were controversial opinions rather than legislative facts, and the reports were either untested or too tentative to affect the result.
