Does the Canadian Charter Effectively Protect our Human Rights?

This charter means that everyone no matter what race, religion, sex, national origin, age or mental and physical abilities they have they are protected. The charter allows people to have basic human fundamental rights that most government rules and regulations were restricting before it came into act. The freedom of speech, religion and to associate yourself with whoever you want are just some of those rights that are being offered with the entrenchment of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Finally the last achievements that Pierre Trudeau did that assisted in making Canada better are the legalization of laws on abortion, homosexuality and lotteries.

Signed in 1982, it is what we have based our government and laws around. It contains many provisions that allow us the freedoms we use everyday and sometimes take for granted. Individual rights make up the largest part of it and are promises made by the government of what we have the right to do. The Charter includes fundamental freedoms such as, freedom of speech and freedom of peaceful assembly. It also included a plethora of other rights as well, like the right to enter and leave the country freely. It also dictates how some parts of the government should be run, like when parliament must meet. While many other countries do not have the same rights and freedoms we have, this helps our quality of life. In the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, there are also collective rights for our First Nations and heritage groups. Furthermore, Canadians quality of life is improved and they are protected with the Charter of Rights and freedoms and everything inside of

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.

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.

The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms is an important milestone in Canadian history. An effort through rigorous debate and compromise gave birth to this document that defines our collective values and principles by guaranteeing and protecting the fundamental rights of its citizens. Prior to the Charter, there was no gurantee in Canada that rights and freedoms would not be taken away by legislation. The Charter also allows courts to render the constitutional duty so that any decisions made are consistent with those rights and freedoms. The Charter was established firmly in “The Constitution Act, 1982”, with the declaration of this act Canada escaped from the severe practice of concept of parliamentary supremacy. The Charter has an enormous effect on court’s decision power to award justice to important and debatable issues about policies that affect public. In awarding the verdict courts are not even reluctant to rewrite laws that violate the testament of the Charter. The judges have a duty to regulate the rulings of both provincial and federal governments which, disagree with the root value of Charter.

The Canadian Charter of Rights has been entrenched in the Constitution Act of 1982 since 1982 and affected the lives of countless Canadians ever since it was passed, with most if not all of the effects being positive. This can be proven by the fact that the act that the act has only faced two amendments in the 35 years it has been in effect. Furthermore, the Charter of Rights and Freedoms has five components; Fundamental Freedoms, Democratic Rights, Mobility Rights, Legal Rights, and Equality Rights. All of these were designed to make sure that Canadians face no discrimination, and are not denied any basic rights. This can be seen by seeing how much the quality of life for Canadians has increased over the time the Charter has been embedded in the Constitution, by how much the Charter actually does protect the rights of Canadians.

The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms is without a doubt one of Canada’s most important section entrenched in the Canadian Constitution. The Charter of Rights and Freedoms is a bill of rights enacted into the Canadian Constitution as part of the Canada Act in 1982. However, the Charter was Canada’s second attempt to protect the rights and freedoms of its citizens all throughout the country and on every level of government. The Canadian Bill of Rights, which preceded the Charter was enacted in 1960. However, being only a federal statute rather than a full constitutional document, it had no power and application to provincial laws. In addition, the Supreme Court of Canada only narrowly interpreted the Bill of Rights, therefore rarely unlawful laws were declared inoperative and continued to exist. As a result, the ineffectiveness of the Bill of Rights led to many movements to improve the protection of rights and freedoms in Canada. However, similar to its predecessor, the Charter is not without faults, and loopholes. In some cases, it has even infringed upon certain liberties and democratic rights and freedoms. In other cases, the Charter has incited conflicts between liberty and democracy and raised questions that speculate whether it is truly democratic.

The Charter of Rights and Freedoms upholds the individual rights of all Canadians. Agree or disagree with the following statement.

The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms was signed into law by Queen Elizabeth II April 17, 1982. Often referred to as the Charter, it affirms the rights and freedoms of Canadians in the Constitution of Canada. The Charter encompasses fundamental freedoms, democratic rights, mobility rights, legal rights, language rights and equality rights. The primary function of the Charter is to act as a regulatory check between Federal, Provincial and Territorial governments and the Canadian people. Being a successor of the Canadian Bill of Rights that was a federal statute, amendable by Parliament, the Charter is a more detailed and explicit constitutional document that has empowered the judiciary to render regulations and statutes at both the

Now Aboriginal rights are protected in the Constitution they have the same equal rights as any citizen in Canada. Canada achieved a just society by amending the scars of the collective rights of the Francophones of Canada. In the 1960’s English and French relations were very tense. Provincial governments took the right to speak French away. This led to many conflicts across Canada. When the new Charter of Rights and Freedoms was created it stated that a provincial government could not take away a Francophone’s right to speak their language. The new Charter also included that Francophone’s had the right to send their children to school in either French or English. Canada achieved a just society by relieving French and English tensions. Canada achieved a just society by giving Anglophones collectives rights in Quebec. English Canadians make up the majority of Canada. In Quebec, French Canadian’s have majority. Since they have majority English Canadian’s have collective rights. Before the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, laws in Quebec mostly affected Anglophones. According to Quebec’s Bill 101 which was passed by Parti Quebecois all signs had to be in French, and English citizens in Quebec had to attend French schools

The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms was enacted under the Pierre Trudeau government on April 17, 1982. According to Phillip Bryden, “With the entrenchment of the Charter into the Canadian Constitution, Canadians were not only given an explicit definition of their rights, but the courts were empowered to rule on the constitutionality of government legislation” (101). Prior to 1982, Canada’s central constitutional document was the British North America Act of 1867. According to Kallen, “The BNA Act (the Constitution Act, 1867) makes no explicit reference to human rights” (240). The adoption of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms significantly transformed the operation of Canada’s political system. Presently, Canadians define their

Three decades ago, honorable Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau was establishing the renowned Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Since the three decades of being established, the Charter of Rights and Freedoms has protected the individual rights and freedoms of thousands of Canadians. The Charter of Rights and Freedoms has become a part of the national identity and has become a big patriotic symbol for the country. The Charter of Rights and Freedoms is the document the truly separates Canada from all the other powerful nations and is really something that Canadian take a pride in. The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms brings up many questions, but the biggest and most common question is How effectively does Canada’s Charter of Rights and

The Charter is divided into categorized sections that have different sets of rights or freedoms, but they all come together to complete one job and that is ensuring every Canadian’s rights and keeping everyone safe. The greatest impact of the Charter has always been in the area of criminal law. Charter-protected legal rights mean more prominent protections for accused people, including the right to speak to a lawyer, to not be detained subjectively, and to be free against unreasonable search and seizure (Significance 1; sec. 5, para. 1). These things really makes Canada a fair and just country. But, although the greatest impact of the Charter has been

Canada adopted the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms after Pierre Trudeau's ideology, work and effort of a Canadian Constitution and for constitutional rights and freedoms. Trudeau was a patriot and believed in an independent nation. He wished for Canada to have its own identity and therefore helped pass the Constitution Act of 1982. The legislation went through long political and legal battles, but, Trudeau was able to make the legislation into effect. Queen Elizabeth II, signed the legislation and officially made it law. Moreover, the constitution was consisted of The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Consequently all people in Canada had fundamental rights and freedoms. This included freedom of expression, the right to a democratic government, mobility rights, the legal rights of people accused of crime and many more rights we now take for granted. These rights made Canada a democratic nation and helped form it into one of the best places to live. In addition, Trudeau included homosexuality, abortion, religious and indigenous rights. He decriminalized homsexuality, liberalized divorce law, legalized contraception, legalized abortion and also created The Rights Of Indigenous People of Canada. He included rights for all individuals, for individuals to be treated equally. At the time, many disagreed on homosexuality, abortion, contraception and providing Indigenous people with specialized rights to

In the 19th century, after tremendous progress in surgical processes, abortions were then conducted by surgeons on a wide scale, while medical abortions are used concurrently. However, as abortion technology prospers, legal restrictions came with it. In 1803, a English statute abolished the previously-legal first trimester abortions. The act “condemned the willful, malicious, and unlawful use of any medical substance when used with the intent to induce abortion” (Stern, 1968). In 1821, Connecticut enabled the first statute in the United States regulating abortions. Within 10 years, states like Illinois, Ohio, New York, Alabama, and others enabled abortion restriction statutes, and by 1968, 50 of the 51 jurisdictions in the United States have prohibited abortion except in the case women’s life is endangered (Ibid., at 3). In 1965, Britain, however, legalized abortion for “medical conditions of the mother, for socio-economic reasons, for eugenic considerations, and for pregnancies which resulted from rape or incestuous intercourse”, which is still law today (Ibid, at 4). In Canada, abortion has been legalized since 1969 through Bill C-150 if “a committee of three physicians determined that the pregnancy was a threat to the woman's life or health” (Norman, 2012). In 1988, Canadian Supreme Court struck down bill C-150’s provision requiring committee approval to receive an abortion in its decision R v Morgentaler, legalizing abortion across Canada for any reasons (Ibid.).