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.
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 …