Cheticamp should have its own riding: Supreme Court [Video]

HALIFAX –

The Nova Scotia Supreme Court has ruled the Cheticamp area in northwestern Cape Breton should have its own protected Acadian provincial riding.

Justice Pierre Muise says in a ruling this week that the lack of a district for Cheticamp is an unjustified breach of Section 3 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Muise has given the provincial electoral boundaries commission 20 months to draw up a new riding.

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The Federation acadienne de la Nouvelle-Ecosse launched a court challenge in 2021 after it objected to Cheticamp not being declared a protected riding in a report released by the boundaries commission in April 2019.

In his decision Tuesday, Muise said the commission erred in not recommending a special electoral district based on the “speculative risk” that creating the riding would dilute the urban vote in the …