Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity to rise this afternoon and speak about this important issue.
The hon. member for Moncton—Riverview—Dieppe has asked the House to recognize the vital role played by the Charter of Rights and Freedoms in ensuring justice, liberty, equality and fairness for all Canadians.
While the charter has clearly had an undeniable impact on Canadian society, the values that the hon. member refers to actually precede the charter and really have formed an integral part of who we are since at least Confederation.
The Charter of Rights and Freedoms, as we know, was proclaimed into force on April 17, 1982, 115 years after Canada first became a nation.
I actually was a student at Carleton University here in Ottawa on that April morning. I was here on the front lawn of Parliament. I remember that when the Charter of Rights and Freedoms was signed into effect, the Queen was there, as well as Prime Minister Trudeau and the justice minister at the time, Mr. Chrétien. It came in with a lot of fanfare.
As I said, a lot of what had developed prior to that time actually became part of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Of course, the Canadian Bill of Rights, in 1960, came in under a Conservative government, the government of John G. Diefenbaker. He often said that it was one of his proudest achievements.
We know what the Canadian Bill of Rights said, that peace, order and good government are the principles upon which our country came to be. That, including the Constitution Act, 1867, defined the principles under which a Canadian Parliament could legislate, which is how we all work here even today.
Canada, of course, has also been the champion of human rights. In fact, it was a Canadian, John Peters Humphrey, who was in charge of drafting the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which was ratified in 1948. That was one of Prime Minister Diefenbaker's inspirations for the Canadian Bill of Rights, which as I said, was enacted in 1960.
The Canadian Bill of Rights recognizes the rights of individuals to freedom, personal security and the enjoyment of property. It protected the right to equality before the law, ensured protection before the law, and protected freedom of religion, speech, assembly, association and the press, all things that are important to Canadians. They were then and they are today.
The Canadian Bill of Rights is still in place today, but for the most part, our courts refer to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Both have positively contributed to Canada and to its people.
All of this has had a major impact on the promotion and protection of human rights in Canada. The charter is founded on the rule of law and entrenches in the Constitution of Canada the rights and freedoms that Canadians believe are necessary in a free and democratic society. It recognizes primary fundamental freedoms such as the freedom of expression, and as I said, of association, and democratic rights including the right to vote, mobility rights that protect the right to live anywhere in Canada, legal rights such as the right to life, liberty and security of the person, and equality rights.
It also recognizes the multicultural heritage of Canadians and protects official language and minority language education rights, as well as the rights of aboriginal peoples in Canada.
The values and principles that are enshrined in the charter are essential to the promotion of a free and democratic society. These values include respect for the inherent dignity of the person, commitment to social justice and equality, accommodation of a wide variety of beliefs, respect for cultural and group identity, and faith in social and political institutions that enhance the participation of individuals and groups in society.
I firmly believe these are values that are held very strongly by Canadians.
In discussing the protection of constitutional rights in Canada, our Chief Justice, the Right Hon. Beverley McLachlin, offered this observation:
It may be said that a nation's law--particularly its law of rights and liberties--expresses and reflects the fundamental social and moral assumptions upon which the nation is founded, its national character. This national character is not fixed, and is subject to constant redefinition within public discourse. But the boundaries of this discourse are largely shaped by a nation’s history.
This national history finds expression in the charter and it is important to remember that the framers of the charter made it very clear when it was enacted that it was not intended to create new rights but simply to codify rights and fundamental concepts that have existed in Canadian law since 1867 and before that as part of the British common law tradition.
These include concepts such as the presumption of innocence, the requirement of proof beyond a reasonable doubt, and the independence of the judiciary. These concepts have parallels in the legal system of other free and democratic societies, such as the U.S. Bill of Rights.
The charter moved Canada from a system of parliamentary supremacy to a constitutional democracy where government action is limited by an entrenched bill of rights and courts have the power to strike down legislation. However, while the courts exercise considerable influence on the shape of Canadian law, they do so in accordance with the well-established rules of constitutional and statutory interpretation. In addition, elected legislatures continue to be free to amend or introduce new legislation in the public interest as long as it is constitutional.
We have heard from other members here today. I listened quite intently to the presentation by the member for Dartmouth—Cole Harbour when he talked about other countries and the impact that the charter has had in other countries that look up to Canada. The charter has been used as a source of guidance by many other countries when drafting their own bills of rights. For example, the wording and structure of the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990 was strongly influenced by the charter.
Charter jurisprudence is frequently used as a comparative source by the courts of other countries when interpreting human rights guarantees in their bills of rights. For example, the South African constitutional accord has drawn upon charter case law in interpreting the South African constitutional guarantees of equality: the right to life, the right to a trial within a reasonable time, freedom of religion and freedom of expression.
Similarly, in New Zealand, courts have referred to charter jurisprudence when construing the application of the Bill of Rights Act 1990, its human rights guarantees and limitations on those rights. Indeed, courts of many countries have drawn upon charter jurisprudence, including Ireland, Sri Lanka, Uganda, the United Kingdom and Zimbabwe.
While the impact of the charter is undeniable, there are many other laws that make up the human rights framework in Canada. I have already spoken about the Canadian Bill of Rights, which was enacted in 1960 and applies to the legislation and policies of the federal government and guarantees those rights and freedoms similar to those found in the charter.
The federal, provincial and territorial governments have also adopted legislation, human rights acts or codes prohibiting discrimination on various grounds in relation to employment, the provision of goods, the provision of services and facilities that are customarily available to the public, and accommodation. For example, the Canadian Human Rights Act contains a duty of reasonable accommodation of personal differences, including physical, religious, and ethnocultural differences, in the workplace and in the provision of services.
The Official Languages Act also deserves mention when discussing Canada's human rights framework. It is the cornerstone of Canada's legislative and regulatory regime of language rights protections. The Official Languages Act sets out governmental commitments regarding the full participation of English-speaking Canadians and French-speaking Canadians within federal institutions and the promotion of linguistic duality within Canadian society.
The Supreme Court has stated that federal, provincial and territorial human rights legislation and the Official Languages Act are quasi constitutional in nature, meaning that they have precedence over conflicting legislation.
In terms of human rights protection moving forward, in order for respect for human rights to remain an inherent part of Canadian culture, it is important that federal, provincial and territorial governments, as well as civil society, work closely together to ensure that every citizen is treated equally and with dignity, regardless of his or her age, ability, race, origins or their beliefs.
I want to talk a bit about tomorrow, Friday, December 10, Human Rights Day. This day marks the anniversary of the unanimous adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the General Assembly in 1948. Human Rights Day is an opportunity to commemorate the sacrifices made by the many individuals worldwide who have risked their lives and liberty to defend the rights of others.
I hope we are not going to forget the Canadians who have paid a high price to support the government of Afghanistan and Afghan organizations in building up their capacity to ensure respect for human rights.
Canadians have fought in many wars to protect human rights for others around the world and for ourselves.
I appreciate the opportunity to rise today to speak about this. There is one thing that is not in the charter, something that is important to many of my constituents. It was something that was curiously left out of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and that is private property rights. Many people in my riding of Leeds—Grenville see this as an omission. They feel this Parliament and our country should look at this omission.
The Ontario Landowners Association has put forward a position on private property rights. I want to quote a bit from what it has to say. It says:
The only person who has a right to private property is the private property owner. The private properly owner has the right to sell his property to a willing buyer when a price has been agreed upon. If government wants a right to private property, because it is deemed to be in the public interest, then government must pay the private property owner full, fair and timely compensation for the loss of use, enjoyment and value of the property. The Expropriations Act defines that government can expropriate private property for the public good and the private property owner must be paid the highest land use market value--in other words compensated for the land use that would have the highest value.
When government decides to ignore the property rights of private property owners, it has decided that property is more important than people. At this point, government has forgotten that its mandate is to serve people and make them safe and secure. Secure includes the security of private property rights. History has clearly demonstrated that when a state forsakes private property rights, it is the beginning of the failure of that civilization.
This is very important to many folks in my riding. They do not accept the taking of private property by government without compensation. They think it is a wrongful action by government. It is one of the important causes of my constituents in Leeds—Grenville. Many have spoken to me over the years that I have been in the House of Commons. We have heard from a number of speakers who were also elected in 2004. I am sure they have heard this from their constituents as well.
Canada will continue to raise the issues of freedom and human rights around the world. We have to do that as well in Canada. We must be vocal advocates and an effective partner for human rights reform here and around the world.
I appreciate the opportunity to rise today to speak to this important issue. I look forward to questions from members.
