Mr. Speaker, as this is a private member's motion, there will be a free vote in the House. However, I can indicate, on behalf of the New Democratic Party, that our traditional position on these motions or private member's bills has been to oppose them. I know I will vote against the motion and I expect all members of my caucus will as well.
There are a number of reasons for that. Only having 10 minutes this evening, I doubt I will get through all of them.
Let me deal with the one that I believe, in the context of the Canadian constitutional framework, is the most significant one. It is one that was advocated very strongly back in the late seventies, early eighties as the federal government moved to repatriate the Constitution to Canada, letting us take full control of that. It is the role and the mandate we have between the federal government and the provincial governments.
It is very clear, going back to 1867 when the British North America Act was passed, that property and civil rights were a provincial responsibility, and that never changed. In 1982, when we repatriated the Constitution to Canada so we were completely in control of that as a completely independent sovereign nation, we retained that relationship. This power over property and civil rights remained at the provincial level as it does to today.
For the member for Niagara West—Glanbrook, it is a very fundamental relationship that he in effect is proposing to tinker with, one that is really going down the wrong road.
It was interesting that in 1982 the provinces were very adamant. It was not only the province of Quebec, which does have a somewhat different history with regard to how it treats property rights than what we have in the common law jurisdictions of Canada. All provinces and territories told the federal government “absolutely not”. They said we were treading into their area if we incorporated a property right into the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. That message was very clear from all provinces and territories.
If I recall my history, I believe the Conservative Party at the time, under pressure from the provinces, similarly did not push to incorporate a property right clause into the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. I believe that is historically accurate, but I could be corrected. However, we remain in that relationship now. If we go to the provinces today, they will say no. If there is going to be a dealing with property rights in Canada, those are going to be dealt with at the provincial level, not at the federal level, not in the Constitution.
The reason why I believe the New Democrats have traditionally been opposed to this type of motion or bill is it sets up a clash between the Constitution, whose property rights and civil rights are provincial responsibilities and powers, and the charter. It is hard to forecast what the outcome would be. This has happened rarely. In fact, I am not sure if it has ever happened since 1982, where we had that clash between the fundamental rights in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the powers in the old BNA Act and now the Constitution.
I suggest for my colleague from Niagara West—Glanbrook that he needs to appreciate that fact. We are exposing ourselves to a clash between those two documents. I believe we should not go down that road because of the risks it poses to the relationship between those two documents in our constitutional framework and the structure of our country. It is way too dangerous.
The third point that I would make is that when we actually look at the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and I believe my Liberal colleague was making this point but I want to emphasize it, section 2 deals with fundamental freedoms. What are those? They are the freedom of conscience and religion, freedom of thought, belief, opinion and expression, including freedom of the press, freedom of peaceful assembly, freedom of association.
Section 3 deals with democratic rights, the right to citizenship, the right to vote. In section 6 we have mobility rights. In section 7, which is where the hon. member is proposing to put this, we have legal rights. If we look at that section and the ones that follow from it, it really is about “the right to life, liberty and security of the person”. Section 8 is the right to be secure against unreasonable search or seizure. Section 9 is the right to be not arbitrarily detained, the right not to be arrested or detained in a draconian manner. In section 15 we have equality rights.
When we look at the rights I have listed, fundamental rights, democratic rights, mobility rights, legal rights, equality rights and language rights, they are all human rights; the point being made, and I want to repeat, is rights to the person. None of them is economic rights. That is really what the member is trying to incorporate for the first time into the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. That is not what the Charter of Rights and Freedoms was designed to do from its inception, nor has it incorporated any of those types of attempts in the last 25 years of its existence. It is the wrong document, the wrong tool to be moving in this direction.
I want to make one final point with regard to the charter and that is section 25.
The member for Niagara West—Glanbrook talked about the role property rights have played historically. That is a somewhat limited perspective on property and how it is treated by various societies. Our first nations did not have the concept of property rights, which the Europeans brought to North America as they occupied it. That has never changed for our first nations. Section 25 of our charter recognizes that. It says that we cannot abrogate those rights that the first nations have had from time immemorial.
I believe strongly that the incorporation of property rights into the charter in fact would clash with section 25, because the first nations in this country continue to this day to look at property rights in a much more collective approach than the individual property rights that Europeans incorporate and which quite frankly are not found in a lot of other jurisdictions in the world. Collective rights with regard to property are seen in a number of other jurisdictions right around the globe. Africa and Asia have not incorporated the European concept of individual property rights. I believe that is what the member is attempting to do. Again, it would clash with section 25.
I want to make one final point and maybe a recommendation to my colleague. He pointed out, and rightfully so, some of the abuses that have gone on, both at the federal and the provincial levels with regard to expropriation of property rights, and they are valid points. I have a hard time with the gun registry, but I will leave that for a moment.