Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to rise in the House today to speak to this particular motion. The motion is simple. It states:
That, in the opinion of the House, the government should amend Section 7 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms to extend property rights to Canadians.
Let me say at the outset that it is the opinion of this member that all members in the House should vote against this particular motion.
I will make a number of points to develop this argument. First, I want to point out that this motion, although short and brief, introduces what I consider to be a significant change in the Constitution of this country in that section 7 would be amended to extend to property rights.
In the early 1980s we went through a very complex set of negotiations between the Government of Canada and the 10 provincial governments to repatriate our Constitution and at the same time adopted as part of our constitutional law the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. This was a major event. It was done after much debate and comment, and the authors at that time felt, and I submit correctly, that property rights should not be included in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
The document has a history now of some 25 years. The previous speaker was talking about polls, but it has generally been accepted by all Canadians that we are dealing basically with personal rights.
Section 2 of the charter talks about fundamental freedoms, such as religion, thought, opinion, speech, and freedom of assembly. Section 3 deals with democratic rights, such as the right to vote. Section 7 outlines the legal rights, which is the section that the hon. member wants to introduce this provision into. Section 8 talks about arrest. Section 9 is detention. Section 15 talks about equality and then there are language rights.
These are personal rights and this concept would introduce an entirely new concept. Basically, we are talking about economic rights versus personal rights. It is not within what I consider to be the pith and substance of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
The second point I want to bring to the House's attention is that this is basically provincial jurisdiction and has been since 1867. In this there has been no change. If we go back to the debates that took place in 1981-82, I stand to be corrected, but I believe each and every province lobbied and argued very strongly that property rights not be included in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The authors of the final document agreed with that concept and Quebec had its own points.
At the time, the authors of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms introduced an amending formula which requires seven provinces including at least 50% of the population of the country. If those provinces have the same view as they did in 1982, certainly this amendment would not receive approval under the amending formula of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
The fourth point is that the House should consider all the unintended consequences of this particular motion. Municipal zoning, aboriginal rights of property, provincial land use property, environmental protection legislation, and property rights of spouses upon the dissolution of marriage, these are all property rights.
We all come from individual provinces that have their own very unique histories. I come from the province of Prince Edward Island. When the province was being created as a colony, the government of Great Britain gave the province to 67 individuals in England. This was an earlier form of patronage. We lived for approximately 100 years under a system of absentee landlords. This was a very important issue that has not been forgotten.
My province has legislation which has been on the books for some 25 or 30 years now. It is called the Prince Edward Island Lands Protection Act. I will be quite honest in saying that many people in Canada will be quite surprised what I am about to read.
That act states:
2.(a) no person shall have an aggregate land holding in excess of 1000 acres; (b) no corporation shall have an aggregate land holding in excess of 3000 acres.
4. A person who is not a resident person shall not have an aggregate land holding in excess of five acres or having a shore frontage in excess of one hundred and sixty-five feet--
This legislation, I would submit, may seem draconian to certain people in other areas of the country where there is more land and the population is not as dense. Given the history of the province, I am going to quote from the preamble to the legislation. Paragraph 1.1(a) states:
--historical difficulties with absentee land owners, and the consequent problems faced by the inhabitants of Prince Edward Island in governing their own affairs, both public and private;
If this motion were to pass and if the motion were to receive the consent of seven provinces having at least 50% of the population of Canada, if the Charter of Rights were amended and it became law, then that particular legislation would be struck down.
Again, I also submit, there would be a lot of other legislation dealing with family law, aboriginal law, environmental law, municipal law, provincial land use law, that would be struck down and would not receive the support of any province let alone one province, and certainly not the province that I come from.
I realize that there have been some issues that have developed over the years. One I can think of right now is the whole issue of expropriation. Certainly, I think the opinion of Canadians and, more important, the way that legislation is implemented by federal, municipal and provincial governments has changed and that has led to some problems.
The previous speaker spoke of gun control. That is another issue. There are people in Canada who think that a Canadian has the right to own a gun without regulation and without any training whatever. That is certainly not my opinion, but I do not have the time to get into that whole issue right now. However, that is a policy issue for governments of the future.
In summary, I made my points to the House. This is a motion that in my respectful opinion should be dead on arrival. I do not believe any province will support this motion. I do not believe it has any possibility of receiving any support for an amendment under our Constitution. For those reasons, it is my submission that each member of this House has an obligation to vote against this particular motion.