My only concern when we talk about establishing new rights.... Most Canadians would assume that these rights are inherent in being a resident or a citizen of this country. When you establish formal legal rights.... There are a number of lawyers on the panel. I'm a lawyer, and I understand the moment you establish these rights, there will be an immediate set of obligations and liabilities which the federal government will assume. It will be left up to the courts then to not only interpret those rights, but over time to expend the scope of those rights. This is essentially creep that occurs as time goes by. When I think that we live in an imperfect world, where we have limited resources, we would like to address the needs of all of our citizens in the most fulsome way, but it is an imperfect world. My only concern is that the establishment of formal rights like this will cost Canadians big time in terms of the resources it will take.
We don't know what the remedies might be in the courts, whether it's damages, or mandamus, under which governments are directed to act in a certain manner.
I don't think you'll find a lot of debate over whether there are some inherent rights. It's when you put them in statutes and establish them formally. In this case, I'm quite certain there would be an immediate liability for the federal government which eventually might extend into the provincial realm as well.