Although I disagree with the trial judge in severing the five-year disqualification from the immediate vacating of the seat, I agree that he had the power to do so. As held by Lamer C.J.C. in Schachter v. Canada (1992), 1992 CanLII 74 (SCC), 93 D.L.R. (4th) 1 at p. 11, [1992] 2 S.C.R. 679, 92 C.L.L.C. ¶14, 036: Far from being an unusual technique, severance is an ordinary and everyday part of constitutional adjudication. For instance if a single section of a statute violates the Constitution, normally that section may be severed from the rest of the statute so that the whole statute need not be struck down. To refuse to sever the offending part, and therefore declare inoperative parts of a legislative enactment which do not themselves violate the Constitution, is surely the more difficult course to justify.
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