A contract in 1880, backed by the CPR Act in 1881, exempted the taxpayer from virtually all forms of federal, provincial and municipal taxation. CPR applied to the Federal Court to recover fuel tax paid under the ETA and large corporations tax under the ITA, and for declarations that the government had no authority to collect such tax.
The Minister moved to strike the taxpayer's pleadings on the basis that they circumvented the Tax Court's authority. The pleadings were not an appeal from an assessment, but rather engaged broader concerns about the constitutionality of the impugned taxes. This was an appropriate matter for the Federal Court.