Canada Is Not A Free, Country We Can Compare Brian Tamanaha 's Four Themes Of Liberty

To what extent was Pierre Trudeau’s vision of a “just society” actually achieved in Canada in (and since) the 1970s? Canada is a just society because of the changes to women's legal rights, ethnic minority human rights, and multiculturalism.

To tell the truth, firstly, I think Canada has too many laws because of the lack of universality reflected by its laws.Nowadays, the society and also the quality of people are both developing rapidly day by day.However, from a deeper point of view, we could easily seek out the truth under the “peaceful” and “harmonious” surface of the modern

“The spirit of democracy cannot be imposed from without. It has to come from within”. (Gandhi) A lawful and fair democracy is one that represents the people, where the will of the people is done not where the government’s will is enforced. Here in Canada we believe a democratic government is well suited for its people but like any other system it has its flaws. This country was a model democracy. Canada’s wealth, respect for legal, human and civil rights almost promises that this country has the potential to uphold a legitimate democracy. Reading headlines today concerning the state of democracy in Canada we can see how our political system is slipping. A democracy should uphold the rights of its people rather than the rights of a

The entrenchment of rights in the Canadian Constitution comes after long experience with a system of parliamentary supremacy. The American judicial tradition of treating the written constitution as fundamental law cannot have an instant Canadian counterpart. Thus, it does not follow that the Canadian courts will necessarily claim a role comparable to that of courts in the United States, nor is it clear that the representative bodies in Canada would tolerate such a judicial assertion of power. Opposition by government bodies to the Charter have already occurred in Canada, where the Parti Quebecois government of Quebec invoked the “notwithstanding the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms” clause for the purpose of protecting their language laws from attack under the charter. This report will attempt to note some of the common and distinctive features of the text of the two constitutions as well as to how they differ.

Since the British North America Act was adopted in 1867, Canada has been developing and writing up their own laws independently from other countries. Many people believe that, though our Canadian laws have come far from the days of the BNA act, they are still not up to par with the harshness of American laws. The advantage that Canadians have over Americans is that in Canada, there is only one criminal code for all Canadians whereas in the United States, every State has their own criminal codes which, unfortunately for the Americans, are not identical. Also, the United States and Canada each have a law that is fraught with the possibility that an injustice will be brought upon those whom these laws apply. In the United States, it is the

Canada is a huge country located between the Pacific Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean and consists of 10 provinces. This country is the host for immigrants from all over the world with different religions and cultures. It embraces all of these diverse groups of people. It was essential that some arrangements be made to accommodate for these divers groups’ needs and ultimately in the year 1960 legislation of Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms was a huge step toward these affairs. The Charter was enacted by the parliament in order to respect each person’s rights and eligibilities in different areas and it is divided into subsections.

As time goes on, some countries become more relevant in the global sphere while others start to fade away. Canada is a country that only becomes more relevant as time goes on. Since being granted full sovereignty, Canada has had a growing role as a major world player. Much of their international growth has to do with its close ties to the United States and the United Kingdom. However, the country has also undergone huge change and refocusing on a domestic level. With influence from both Europe and the United States, Canada has a very unique system of governing. This paper will focus on a few major areas of Canada. It will look into the history of Canada, the structure of its government, its politics, and many of the major issues it faces today.

Having lived in Canada when I was 8 before the US-Canada magazine dispute occurred, I found myself thoroughly engrossed in Canadian culture. It seemed a perfect culture, built to protect domestic interests and despite the potential division between countries, created a safe environment where people were unafraid to leave doors unlocked, due to almost no crime. The peaceful and respectful nature of most Canadians isn’t just a fluke, the country was designed this way, and one of the primary influencers of this strategy is the media. Watching the news in Canada, the focus is positive, the message is positive, there is no forced fear of sense of doom as we see here in the US. Life is about being sustainable, not so much a struggle to the top of the food chain, but working together, instead of separating and segregating groups. That is except the region of French Quebec; however, Quebec is like a whole new country in itself.

The necessity to limit the rights and freedoms of Canadians is illustrated and reinforced through the governments use of reasonable limits, ‘notwithstanding clause’ to limit individual rights and freedoms, and the occasional need for the government to have power extended above and beyond the limits prescribed in the Charter.

Before the Charters of Rights and Freedoms were introduced to our Constitution we had to follow the BNA Act also known as The Constitution Act of 1867, which was passed by the British parliament. “This Constitution distributed power between Federal and Provincial governments” (Reference3). Later on in 1960s, the Federal government passed the Canadian Bill of rights “The Bill spoke of Fundamental freedoms, Legal rights and equality rights before the law” (Reference4). This Bill couldn’t do as much because it was no more powerful than any other law, and it was only applied for Federal laws. For many years’ Canada’s Prime Ministers were looking for ways to bring the Constitution home. Prime Minister Trudeau also wanted to add the Charter of Rights and Freedoms to the Constitution. The Charter of Rights and Freedoms guaranteed all Canadians to have Fundamental Freedoms, Legal Rights, Equality Rights, Mobility Rights, and the main one Democratic

The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms is part of the Canadian constitution, which became part of the constitution in April 1982. The constitution is the supreme law of the land and contains the basic rules about how the country operates. The charter sets out the rights and freedoms that Canadians believe are necessary in a free and democratic society. Occasionally, individuals have their rights denied or violated by the government (both federal and provincial), and even the police that some people thought are tasked with the responsibility of upholding the charter of rights and freedoms. However, this notion is erroneous, as the police are not responsible for such.

*Douglas, Ann. The Complete Idiot's Guide to Canda in the 80's. Scarborough: Prentice-Hall Canada Inc., 1999.

What is Canada? What is a Canadian? Canada, to employ Voltaire's analogy, is nothing but “a few acres of snow.”. Of course, the philosopher spoke of New France, when he made that analogy. More recently, a former Prime Minister, Joe Clark, said that the country was nothing but a “community of communities”. Both these images have helped us, in one way or another, try to interpret what could define this country. On the other hand, a Canadian could be a beer, a hockey-playing beaver or even a canoe floating in a summer day's sunset. A Canadian could also be a “sovereigntyphobe”, refusing to see the liquefaction, albeit political, of the second largest country in the world.

“Canada, the land of the free and home of the brave”. A term which very much embraces the meaning of this peacekeeping country. A few fun facts about our loving nation; Canada is known for being a very internationally peaceful country, it is the most educated country in the world with more than 50 percent of the population holding college degrees, Canada is also the second largest country on the planet next to Russia and it has more lakes than every other country combined! Canada is well known for its multicultural inhabitants, freedom-like ideology and its natural landscape.

Within Canada, free speech was not included in the “Canadian Bill Of Rights” until later in the 20th century (Government Of Canada); it wasn’t fully acknowledged then and this relates to the great ideas of John Stuart Mill. In On Liberty, Mill explicitly states the importance of the freedom of speech, thought and lastly to hold an opinion. Mill also goes further to discuss the limitations of actions that may emerge from these opinions. Moreover, with these major points, he says that people should not coerce someone’s opinion either through their government or on their own (Mill 14). Mill has given some important points that relate to real life situations improve society and cultivate individuality of people. These points include