Harrison v Carswell (1975), [1976] 2 S.C.R. 200 is a famous pre-Charter decision of the Supreme Court of Canada where the Court denied the right to protest as a freedom of expression. Facts Sophie Carswell, employee of one of the businesses located in the Polo Park Shopping Centre (Winnipeg, MB), was participating in a strike and picketing in front of her place of work, when the manager of said shopping centre, Peter Harrison, requested that she and the other picketers leave the area or they would be charged with trespass under the Petty Trespasses Act of Manitoba (1970). Carswell continued to picket, and was therefore charged with trespassing. She was initially convicted by the County Court, but then this judgment was reversed by the Manitoba Court of Appeal. Harrison then asked for leave to appeal to the Supreme Court, and the case was heard by this Court in 1976. Opinion of the Court The Court held that there was no right of a store employee to protest in a shopping centre when it was against the wishes of the centre. The centre was held to be sufficiently under the control of the owner and did not constitute a public place, thus the owner had the right to protect the private property under trespass. The decision heavily relies on a case also previously decided by the Supreme Court of Canada, Peters v The Queen (1971), 17 DLR (3d) 128. In that case, the Supreme Court decided that the owner of a shopping mall had "sufficient control or possession of the common areas" of the mall so as to be able to claim that the picketers in the Peters case were in fact trespassing. As the Peters case could not sufficiently be distinguished from the Harrison case, Justice Dickson states, it could not be decided otherwise. In fact, deciding otherwise might have raised questions as to "the limits of judicial function". The decision therefore tries to address three separate issues: Can we distinguish Peters from the current case? What is the role of the judiciary in the interpretation of the law? What degree of control does the property owner have? Can he/she invoke trespass even for people who are engaging in a lawful activity, such as striking? Justice Dickson and the majority of the Court found that the two cases were indistinguishable and, as the first one recognized to the owner the