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OTTAWA — A retired New Brunswick man’s quest to buy booze in Quebec at a slight bargain and bring it home to drink has landed in the Supreme Court of Canada, where on Wednesday Crown attorneys from across the country argued that the case threatens the very foundation of Canadian federalism.

“This case began as a simple ticket offence,” said the argument from the New Brunswick government. “A simple case it is not.”

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The province contends that overturning the $292.50 ticket Gerard Comeau received for bringing 14 cases of beer and three bottles of liquor across the provincial boundary would mean “an end to Canadian federalism as it was originally conceived, has politically evolved and is judicially confirmed.”

A simple case it is not

Comeau has already won in New Brunswick provincial court, which ruled in 2016 that the prohibition on possessing alcohol purchased outside the province violates section 121 of Canada’s Constitution Act, 1867, which says “All Articles of the Growth, Produce, or Manufacture of any one of the Provinces shall, from and after the Union, be admitted free into each of the other Provinces.” After the New Brunswick Court of Appeal declined to hear the government’s appeal, the Supreme Court of Canada agreed to hear it out.