The Negative Aspects of Special Rights

Jacob Levy’s article works to explore different areas of cultural rights and the ways in which we may change the way we do things depending on the minority culture of the community. He breaks down cultural rights into different categories: exemptions, assistance, self-government, external and internal rules, recognition/enforcement, representation, and symbolic claims. He gives certain examples about each category, with instances such as having multilingual ballots to ease the voting process for minorities (assistance) or having proper representation in the legislature process.

The rights of many people versus the rights of an individual is certainly a vexing concept. Like a delicate balancing act; if one side is favoured over the other it causes a rift in the already strained relationship between the minority and majority. Evidently, the justification of taking any side must be valid, according to the theories of H.L.A. Hart. In the past, Canadian law has violated the rights of minorities; however, these violations have decreased in their severity as time has passed on. Some cases where the balance between minority and majority rights is questioned is in The Canadian Indian Residential School System, Bill 101, Equality in the Workplace and The Public Service Act.

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.

Every Canadian citizen can enjoy living in a country today where everyone has equal rights and freedom. Canadians today have many rights and freedoms that they take for granted. The rights and freedoms we have today were only made possible are many struggles that people in the past have faced. Various groups, specifically, Chinese workers, African Canadians, natives and women dealt with discrimination daily. Their battle for equal rights and freedoms amongst everyone has contributed greatly to the development of our nation to what it is today.

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

Collective rights are what makes Canada uniquely different from the other countries. These rights have grown more equal over time to shape Canada to become a fair and equitable governed society. Collective rights are rights given to specific groups for historical and constitutional reasons for groups such as the First Nations, Inuit, Francophones and Anglophones. As great as it sounds, back in Canadian history back when collective rights were just starting off as treaties and laws, First Nations and the Metis were faced with assimilation. Francophones and Anglophones were given collective educational rights when put in a minority setting. Without collective rights shifting to become better, historical groups who found Canada would have either

Even though Canada is one of the most developed countries in the world, there are still major human right violations that occur on a regular basis. The most prominent violation that occurs is the violence and discrimination against the indigenous women who live in Canada. Native women are seen as less by others for multiple reasons, mainly because they are native, Canadian women whose ancestors have always lived there. Also, there are stereotypes, corruption, and racism in the police force. Even though this is a massive problem it is possible to stop if we raise awareness, provide recourses to victims, and fix governmental corruption. Overall with this monstourus problem looming over Canada there

Throughout the 1950’s and 1960’s Canada achieves it’s ‘just society” by developing equal and fair rights through collective rights for some of its most affected groups. Canada achieved its goal in becoming a just society by amending the collective rights of the Aboriginals. Since Confederation the Federal

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 Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms which is entrenched into the constitution offers a guarantor of individual sovereignty, which states that "Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of the person and the right not to be deprived thereof except in accordance with the principles of fundamental

“Most of the rights can be exercised by any legal person, but few of the rights belong exclusively to citizens of Canada”. (Reference8). With the Charter of Rights and Freedoms the Canadian society has a clear view of human rights and freedoms, and ways to enforce these rights. If the laws or governments action violates our Charter, we have the right to ask the court to address this. “At first Canada was able to take in the disrespectful and racist actions towards us Canadians” (Reference9), also we could be imprisoned without a good reason. But when the Charter stepped in, the government or the police must have a good reason or consent from the court to take actions against us. Meaning because of the Charter the government or police cannot harm us Canadians till they have a valid reason or consent from court. Part of our rights is to have a fair and a quick public trial by an impartial court to prove us either innocent or guilty of our crime. “The Indian Act of 1876 affected first nations who had concluded treaties with Canada’s government “. (Reference10) also they banned traditional ceremonies and the people needed the government’s permission to wear traditional clothes. Later on when the charter was introduced to the Constitution, those problems were fixed. Lastly women weren’t allowed to vote till 1920, because of Canada’s Election Act which banned women from

Civil rights protect citizens from discrimination(Civil Rights for Kids Overview, 2017). Constitutional rights are now guaranteed for all U. S. citizens. Many of these rights were not available due to may setbacks. Race. color, owning of land, and other setbacks made is impossible to for many, until now. They provide the opportunity of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” (Declaration of Independence, 1776). They keep us protection from harm and give us rights many of us deserve as citizens. Free speech, baring arms, and the right to vote are all possible due to civil rights. It is because of people like Martin luther king Jr, Helen Keller, and Rosa Parks who made people aware of discrimination through activities like the March on Washington, Montgomery Bus Boycott, and the Little Rock Nine. These people fought for many rights due to the discrimination they have faced for a long time. Race, color, the right to vote, and other things are the what these people fought for.

To further support my argument that these people and their organizations have confronted the issue of voting rights which led to modifying Section 77 of the Indian Act I will discuss an academic source titled The purpose of Canadian equality rights written by Donna Greschner, a professor at the University of Saskatchewan. Greschner begins her paper by discussing that the equality provisions in the Canadian Charter of Rights and

The most important part of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms is the Equality Rights, which states that everyone is equal in the eyes of the law and is entitled to the “equal benefit of the law”(Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, s 15). This is commonly interpreted to mean that all citizens are entitled to the positives of Canadian law. Unfortunately, this is not the reality of the legal system. Quite frequently certain citizens are allowed special benefits after being found guilty. The reality is: police officers, at any level, receive lesser sentences than regular citizens for the same or similar crimes. This preferential practice is proven when cases are examined and compared to the Criminal Code as well as comparable cases. Cases

In the peer-reviewed journal, “Indigenous Peoples and Multicultural Citizenship: Bridging Collective and Individual Rights,” Cindy L. Holder and Jeff J. Corntassel discuss the revaluation, problems, and restrictions of existing human rights instruments while examining the liberal-individualist and corporatist perspectives. This journal was written in response to the fiftieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which was “ …. a milestone for universal legal protection of individuals” (Holder and Corntassel 126). When the existing human right means were reexamined due to the anniversary, there were several problems that arose. First, there is the absence of promoting universal acceptance of group rights when compared to