What is the role of the courts in scrutinising legislation?

It is not every legislative choice that is subject to judicial scrutiny. The court's role in examining legislation is to "protect against incursions on fundamental values, not to second guess policy decisions". (See: Andrews v. Law Society of British Columbia, 1989 CanLII 2 (SCC), [1989] 1 S.C.R. 143, [1989] S.C.J. No. 6, at p. 194 S.C.R.) The court is not to be swayed by consideration of the wisdom of a law. Those considerations are to be addressed by the legislature. [page203]

The court must undertake its analysis and reach its conclusions based on the record before it. It cannot consider what might have been put before it and cannot assume that a statutory provision has an effect that is not proved. (See:MacKay v. Manitoba, 1989 CanLII 26 (SCC), [1989] 2 S.C.R. 357, [1989] S.C.J. No. 88, at pp. 361 and 366 S.C.R. and Symes v. Canada, 1993 CanLII 55 (SCC), [1993] 4 S.C.R. 695, [1993] S.C.J. No. 131, at p. 763 S.C.R.) The burden of proof is on the applicant.