2024-2025 Bernard Chernos Contest Details

Option One

According to the Canada Elections Act, the current federal voting age in Canada is set at 18 years old, but a group of young people are challenging this age-based restriction in court and advocating to lower the voting age to sixteen. Among other arguments, they have highlighted that denying younger Canadians the right to vote violates Section 3 (voting rights) and Section 15 (equality rights) of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Where do you stand on the issue of lowering the voting age from 18 to 16? Back up your position with relevant evidence, address counter-arguments, and evaluate the merits of their legal arguments.

Option Two

Your public high school has recently banned the wearing of any political symbols on school grounds, citing potential hate speech as the reason. Your student council organizes a sit-in at the principal’s office to protest this ban. The school’s administration decides to suspend all participants from the sit-in and threatens to expel students who continue to protest the political symbols ban. What Charter rights are at play here? Does the ban on political symbols violate students’ freedom of expression? Should students be allowed to protest the ban?

Option Three

Bail is the term used for when a person in Canada charged with a criminal offence is allowed to remain in the community, rather than in detention, while they wait for their trial. People facing criminal charges have the right to a bail hearing, which is also called a “show cause” hearing because this is when the prosecution can “show a cause” for why that person should be incarcerated as they wait for their trial. At this hearing, a judge or a justice of the peace weighs various factors in making this decision. The burden is usually on the government to show why an accused person should be denied bail. However, the Premier of the province of New Island (NI) is pushing for changes to the bail system that would make it so that the burden would shift to the accused to show why they should be released. Why might the Premier be asking for these changes? What does a judge or justice of the peace need to consider in making their determination? What effect(s) will these proposed changes have? Do you support the Premier’s proposal? Why or why not? What Charter rights and freedoms are at play?