Richards was faced with a case in which a British subject who was going to be extradited to the United States claimed that by virtue of his nationality, he had a right to stay in Canada.
Richards upheld the extradition as a matter of treaty law and noted Canadian statutes that seemed to recognize such extradition as legal: Whatever may be considered to have been the general rule in relation to a government surrendering its own subjects to a foreign government, I cannot say I have any doubt, that under the treaty and our own statute, a British subject who is in other respects brought within the law, cannot legally demand that he ought not to be surrendered merely because he is a natural born subject of Her Majesty.
[1]Even after Confederation, the creation of Canadian citizenship and the adoption of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which recognized freedom of movement in section 6, the case was cited by the Supreme Court.
Re Burley was cited to make the point that since criminals can easily escape from the US to Canada, it had been "imperative that little leniency be accorded citizens in this regard."
The Court cited Re Burley to state, "Traditionally, nationality has afforded no defence to extradition from Canada."