Opinion of the Court
The Alberta government conceded that this was a violation of the Hutterites' religious freedom protected under section 2 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms , but argued this violation was allowable under section 1's "reasonable limits" on Charter rights. The Hutterites maintained that this was an unreasonable limit.
Chief Justice McLachlin, writing for the majority, found the law constitutional. She found that the government's need to fight fraud was pressing, and that driving was not a right, so the government was entitled to attach legitimate conditions to it.
Three justices dissented and would have not required the Hutterites to be photographed to be licensed. In three separate opinions, Justices Abella, LeBel and Fish found that this policy was not minimally impairing, since it would not significantly enable identity theft to allow the exceptions, and it would have a large detrimental effect on the Hutterites' way of life, since they would have to employ outsiders to perform all their necessary driving.
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