Part C (SA) Flashcards
Fully explain the application of Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms
Section 52 of the constitution states that all laws created in the country of Canada must comply with the charter to be valid law.
This section also states that if the charter would like to be changed it must use the same amending formula that changes the constitution.
Section 32 of the charter states that this application may not just be for the federal government but for provincial legislation too.
The SCC in 1984 decided that the charter would not be involved with the private sector and that if the case be brought up to the courts it must apply with the government.
Explain why the Canadian Bill of Rights was introduced and why was it not an effective form of legislation?
The bill of rights was introduced after world war II when the war measures act was implemented and the rights and liberties of japanese canadians were violated. From the start the bill of rights was not an effective form of legislation for various reasons:
1. mere statute and it wasn’t entrenched in the constitution
2. A federal statute and only applied to matters within the federal domaine
3. It was inapplicable in many cases because its narrow scope.
Therefore, this form of legislation was not effective and there was no legislation to protect Canada’s rights until the charter in 1982.
- Limitation to the rights and freedoms can be justified by the government under the charter so long as these limitations are “Demonstrably justified”. Explain what this means?
Your rights aren’t unlimited because there’s a balance between personal freedom and what’s best for society. Section 1 of the Charter, known as the reasonable limits clause, allows the government to put restrictions on individual rights if they can prove that those limits are necessary and fair. This means that rights are not absolute; they can be limited in certain situations. Whenever someone claims their rights have been violated, the courts have to look at Section 1 to decide if the restriction is reasonable and justified.
