Former premier Bill Vander Zalm and fellow anti-HST campaigners continued the fight against the province's new tax by filing a petition to the B.C. Supreme Court Monday morning.

Vander Zalm's lawsuit asks B.C.'s highest court to quash the provincial and federal government’s deal to implement the 12 per cent harmonized sales tax. According to the petition, the government unlawfully imposed the tax on British Columbians without public consent.

"There shall be no taxation without representation," the 11-page petition stated.

Anti-HST campaigners collected and submitted the petition of over 700,000 signatures against the tax last week. But in the same week, a group of businesses -- including the Mining Association of British Columbia and the British Columbia Chamber of Commerce -- applied to the B.C. Supreme Court for a judicial review of the petition.

"The Chief Electoral Officer erred in law and exceeded his jurisdiction in holding that Vander Zalm's application for the Initiative Petitions satisfied the RIA's (Recall and Initiative) requirements," the group's court order stated.

The business group's attack to end the HST, which included its own petition, prompted campaigners to pursue legal action, said Fight HST's lead organizer Chris Delaney.

"We were holding off on a legal challenge to it because we wanted to let the petition, the democratic process, work its way through. But that changed last week, we were forced to advance the case for the tax itself being illegal a little bit sooner."

Vancouver lawyer Joseph Arvay will represent anti-HST activists' case, to be heard in court later this summer.

"It's very significant," Arvay said. "If we're successful, the HST will be determined not to apply in British Columbia."

Niamh Scallan is completing her practicum at The Tyee.