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Politics and government of
Canada The Supreme Court of Canada (French Cour suprême du Canada) is the highest court of Canada and is the final court of appeal in the Canadian justice system.[1] The court grants permission to fewer than one hundred litigants each year to appeal decisions rendered by provincial, territorial and federal appellate courts, and its decisions are, by tradition (stare decisis), binding upon all lower courts of Canada. The Supreme Court of Canada is composed of nine judges eight Puisne Justices and the Chief Justice of Canada.[2] The creation of the Court was provided for by the British North America Act, 1867, renamed in 1982 the Constitution Act, 1867. The first bills for the creation of federal supreme court, introduced in the Parliament of Canada in 1869 and in 1870, were withdrawn. It was not until April 8, 1875, that a bill was finally passed providing for the creation of a Supreme Court of Canada. Prior to 1949, however, the Supreme Court did not constitute the court of last resort litigants could appeal to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in London. As well, some cases could bypass the Court and go directly to the Judicial Committee from the provincial courts of appeal. The Supreme Court's influence was thus rather modest. Attitudes among many English Canadians changed when the Privy Council made various unpopular decisions in the 1930s, striking down several overreaching federal legislative initiatives.[citation needed] These decisions were rooted in the Judicial Committee's perception that the division of powers provided for strong provincial powers. Many Canadian nationalists took the opposite view, and as a consequence, public pressure forced the federal government to push for complete judicial independence from the United Kingdom. The Supreme Court of Canada formally became the court of last resort for criminal appeals in 1933 and for all other appeals in 1949. The last decisions of the Judicial Committee on cases from Canada were made in the mid-1950s. The increase in the importance of the Court was mirrored by the numbers of its members. The Court was established in 1875 with six judges, and these were augmented by an additional member in 1927. It was in 1949 that the bench reached its current size 9 judges.
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