With the greatest respect, if you look at the preamble of the Charter of Rights and find out how the courts have used those words in the opening comments, you'll find that it's a nice statement, a flowery statement, but in terms of effect, it doesn't have much, in the actual interpretation of a particular right or a particular section that's being considered.
That's all I'm saying, and I'm not saying anything new. If you talk to litigators, people who defend people in criminal processes every day, they'll tell you that as well. That does not relieve Canada, however, of its obligations under these two instruments.
Canada can't go to another country and say, “you're a terrible government; you're infringing on the rights of your people, which are human rights that the United Nations recognizes”, and then all of a sudden Parliament says, you don't have the right to freedom of conscience. What's that going to do?