THE CHARTER OF RIGHTS AND FREEDOMS

What does the charter do?

• protects certain rights and freedoms from govt interference

• ex. protects us from govt from passing laws that are discriminatory

• protects from the conduct of govt officials → ex. the police

What is the charter not meant to protect us from?

• the private sector

• ex. feeling like our landlord is discriminating us

• private sector associated with Human Rights

What’s S.1 of the Charter?

• Guarantee of Rights and Freedoms

• that the Charter guarantees our rights only to such reasonable limits

What is meant by “Charter is subject to reasonable limits”?

• our rights aren’t absolute

• our indv. rights are balanced out to the rights of society

• note that not all violations of the Charter will result in a law action being found unconstitutional

What’s S. 2 of the Charter?

• fundamental freedoms

• freedom of religion, expression, etc.

• everyone physically in the country has these rights

What’s S. 3 of the Charter?

• democratic rights

• every citizen has the right to vote

What’s S.6 of the Charter?

• mobility rights

• (1) → you can enter, remain, and leave Canada

• (2) → every citizen of Canada and with P.R status has the right to

  • move and reside in any province

  • pursue the gaining of a livelihood in any province

What’s S.7-14 of the Charter?

• legal rights

• (7) → right to life, liberty, and security and not be deprived of that

• (8) → right to be free against unreasonable search or seizure

• (11.b) → the right to be tried within a reasonable time

• (11.h) → right to not be retired for the same offense if found guilty or not

What’s the main thing you need to understand about S.8-14 of the Charter?

• more specific towards criminal offenses

• S.7 gives you your rights

Define what enumerated grounds are

• of discrimination

• ex. race, colour, ethnicity, sex, religion, age, physical or mental disability…

What is S.15(1) of the Charter?

• equality rights

• everyone is equal before and under the law

• equal protection without discrimination based on enumerated grounds

  • race, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, sex, age, mental/physical disability

Is sexual orientation enumerated?

• no

• but read into the charter even though it doesn’t show up in text

Whats S.15(2) of the Charter?

• equality rights

• known as the justification to have affirmative action programs

• that any group suffering inequality or discrimination, the govt will try to make amends/even it out with them

What are affirmative action programs?

• designed to address discrimination by promoting equal opportunities in employment and education

• for groups that have been historically disadvantaged

• ex. more consideration into the police force if you’re a woman or a minority bc back then, police were only white men

What is S.16(1) of the Charter?

• official languages of canada

• that english and french are the two official languages of Canada and have equal status

What is S.23(1) of the Charter?

• minority language educational rights

• that if you’re a french person in a english speaking province, you have the right to be taught in french

• vice versa with english in a french province

What is S.25 of the Charter?

• Aboriginal rights and freedoms not affected by charter

• rights for Aboriginal peoples are imported into the Charter based on other documents

• ex. “guarantee of certain rights and freedoms to the indigenous peoples, including the rights and freedoms from the Royal Proclamation of 1763”

What was the Canadian Bill of Rights 1960?

• conservative party promised to pass a Bill of Rights

• weak attempt to protect us from basic rights and freedoms

• bc it wasn’t part of constitution

What was the problem with the Bill of Rights?

• Charter is part of the constitution, so any law that go against it can be struck down

• not the same case with the Bill

• also very narrow in description

What did S.1 of the Bill also state?

• things that the govt cannot do

• lists of rights for if you were charged with a criminal offence

What does “Habeas Corpus” mean?

• applies to someone charged with a criminal offense

• if you are the accused, you have to be physically present in the court room

What were the 4 types of rights in the Bill of Rights?

• life, liberty, and security of the person

• equality rights (in limited areas; only 5 protected grounds)

• fundamental freedoms (narrow)

• legal rights for people charged with criminal offenses

What’s S.32 of the Charter?

• application section

• that the charter protects us from all levels of govt

• protected from the actions of govt officials from doing discriminatory actions

• protected from laws that could discriminate us

What is S.24 of the Charter?

• enforcement

• the involvement of the court if an indvs. Charter rights are denied or violated

What is S.24(1) of the Charter?

• the right to apply to the court and seek a remedy if you feel like your Charter rights are being violated

• courts have the authority to grant a remedy that is appropriate

What is S.24(2) of the Charter?

• allows for the exclusion of evidence → even if its enough to jail someone

• may be excluded in trial if the evidence was obtained through violating charter rights

• ex. illegal search and seizure

What is the Guiding Principle regarding if evidence should be excluded out of trial?

• would it taint the justice system to allow the evidence in trial even though it was obtained by violating someone’s charter rights

In class, what’s a circumstance in which the evidence may not be tossed out?

• breach of charter rights → the indv. perhaps needed an interpreter, police didn’t give privacy in dealing with a lawyer, or let a person get a lawyer

• will depend on the seriousness

What is a good faith violation?

• violations may be accidental

• ex. police reading the chargers towards someone who doesn’t speak english. indv doesn’t understand and just nods their head.

  • breach of charter rights bc there was no interpreter

Case: 1990s Check Stops to see if people were drinking and driving

• people claimed that they were a violation of Charter rights (s.9 arbitrarily detained) → done nothing wrong, why get checked?

• court upheld → severity of the problem → these prevented the problem from happening

• violation of charter rights but it benefits overall society

What is S.33 of the Charter?

• that any level of govt has the right to take away your rights

• pertain to fundamental freedoms, legal rights, and equality rights

• notwithstanding, opting out

• democratic rights couldn’t be taken away → vote out the govt

• any law that takes away rights has to be re-examined every 5 years