Evolution of Rights

Over time Canadians have seen their rights and freedoms strengthened, with the rights we always believed we had being written in the law and eventually placed into the constitution.

The Beginning

Before becoming a country Canada was a colony of the British empire. Being a colony Canada had no laws of its own, instead laws were supplied by Britain. After confederation Canada became its own country adopting the customs and systems of Britain, this included their human rights policies. At the time Britain had no human rights laws, instead rights were awarded based off of previous court cases (“Canadian Charter of Rights,” n.d.). These rights included the right to a fair trial, freedom of speech, and the presumption that someone is innocent until proven guilty. In 1948 Canada signed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and after that Canada started making the rights and freedoms Canadians deserved Law (“Human rights,” n.d.).

Rights as the law

In 1947 Saskatchewan was created the first human rights act in Canada (“Human rights,” n.d.). The creation of this legislation stated a ripple affect and by 1975 almost all of Canada's provinces had passed some sort of human rights legislation (“Canadian Bill,” n.d.), and by 1977 the Government of Canada had passed its own legislation the Canadian Human Rights Act (“Canadian Human,” n.d.). In 1960 Canada adopted the Canadian Bill of Rights, created by then Prime Minister John Diefenbaker, the bill was very significant as it was the first federal bill of rights (“Canadian Bill,” n.d.). The bill of rights established in law a person's right to life, liberty, and security of the person, the right to the enjoyment of property, the right to counsel and a person's right to equality under the law. As well as establishing rights, the bill established freedoms including freedom of speech and freedom of religion (“Canadian Bill,” n.d.). The Canadian Bill of Rights was necessary and made a big impact on the rights and freedoms of Canadians but, there were problems including the fact that it was easy to amend the act and that the act was not the highest law of the land so, the constitution or the laws of the provinces in certain cases, could overrule it (“Canadian Bill,” n.d.). In order for Canadians to have the rights and freedoms they need the constitution would need to be amended.

Pictured above it the Canadian Bill of Rights. Source: usask.ca / University of Saskatchewan.

Rights in the constitution

Over the next few years Canada moved created more laws for the rights of its citizens, this included passing the Canadian Human Rights Act, but the Prime Minister at the time Pierre Trudeau wanted to take these rights one step forward, he wanted the rights and freedoms Canadians deserve to be apart of the constitution. By putting the rights in the bill of rights into the constitution, the rights would be the highest law of the land meaning no other law could interfere with it and the rights would apply to every level of government. With that in mind Pierre Trudeau decided to include the rights in the bill of rights in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. So, on April 17, 1982 the Charter of Rights and Freedoms along with the Canada Act of 1982 were signed into law by Queen Elizabeth II making the rights and freedoms the most important and strongest law of the land (“Canadian Charter of Rights,” n.d.).

Above Queen Elizabeth II signs the Charter of Rights and Freedoms into law. Source: Canadian Bar Association, YouTube, CBC.

Content of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

The Charter of Rights and Freedoms contains most of the rights also in the Canadian Bill of Rights except for the right to enjoy property (“Canadian Charter of Rights,” n.d.). The Charter of Rights and Freedoms also contains rights that were not listed in the bill of rights, this includes the right to move and reside anywhere in Canada.

A full text of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms can be found here.

Sources

Canadian Bill of Rights. (n.d.). Retrieved October 16, 2015, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_Bill_of_Rights

Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. (n.d.). Retrieved October 16, 2015, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_Charter_of_Rights_and_Freedoms

Canadian Human Rights Act. (n.d.). Retrieved October 16, 2015, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_Human_Rights_Act

Human rights in Canada. (n.d.). Retrieved October 16, 2015, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_rights_in_Canada

Law of Canada. (n.d.). Retrieved October 16, 2015, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_Canada