Articles on Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms
Displaying 21 - 40 of 40 articles
Lapel pins are seen as part of a campaign in opposition to Québec’s Bill 21 during a news conference in Montréal in September 2019.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Paul Chiasson
The Québec government thought it would Charter-proof its religious symbol law when it invoked the nothwithstanding clause. It was wrong.
Protesters who think the government is restricting their ‘right to freedom’ misunderstand the way that rights require us to consider how our actions impact others.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nicole Osborne
Our freedom is limited as soon as our speech and behaviour become harmful to other people.
People and vehicles fill Wellington Street near Parliament Hill at the beginning of the so-called freedom convoy occupation of Ottawa in late January, 2022.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang
Long-term assessments of the trucker convoy will depend less on questionable interpretations of individual freedom and more on whether the state’s fundamental obligations were seriously threatened.
People gather in Kingston, Ont., to protest COVID-19 vaccine mandates and masking measures on Nov. 14, 2021.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Lars Hagberg
Can the government mandate vaccines? Canadians have rights to make decisions about vaccination, but these rights are not absolute, and do not mean those decisions will have no consequences.
Back to the drawing board? The Ontario government’s changes to third-party election spending laws could be amended to fairly balance people’s Charter rights with meeting legislative objectives.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Geoff Robins
Provincial regulations have major implications for the freedom of expression exercised by individuals and organizations in Ontario in the months leading up to the June election.
Dr. Nili Kaplan-Myrth, an Ottawa family doctor who hosted several pop-up COVID-19 vaccination clinics, speaks in Ottawa in August 2021 during JabaPalooza, a rally calling on Ontario to adopt a provincial COVID-19 vaccine mandate.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang
The decisions of medical health-care professionals like doctors and nurse practitioners are more legally significant than ever before since they are determining vaccination exemptions.
University students wait to be vaccinated at Andres Bello University in Santiago, Chile, in June 2021.
(AP Photo/Esteban Felix)
The case for campus vaccine mandates is compelling, and this conclusion is bolstered by recommendations from medical doctors.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford walks to his office in June 2020 as legislators debated the government’s legislation that enabled it to invoke the notwithstanding clause.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young
By paying greater attention to the originally intended application of the Canadian Constitution’s notwithstanding clause, along with the diversity of lawmakers in Canada, there’s a better path forward.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaks as Ontario Premier Doug Ford listens at a groundbreaking event at a gold mine in 2020.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette
Ontario has historically been the province in Confederation most concerned about buoying Ottawa and limiting its own relative power for the sake of national unity. Doug Ford puts that legacy at risk.
People take part in a demonstration in Montréal in November 2020 to protest against government funding for infrastructure projects at two English-language educational institutions and also calling on the city to set up a body to protect the French language.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes
The federal government’s ambitious new plan to modernize the 51-year-old Official Languages Act is the most significant proposal on the status of French in Canada since 1982.
Pierre Trudeau hosts a meeting at 24 Sussex in Ottawa with the provincial premiers on Sept. 12, 1980.
THE CANADIAN PRESS
Pierre Trudeau’s contribution to the remaking of Canada cannot be questioned. Throughout the 1980 to 1982 constitutional debates, he reminded Canadians of their country’s basic values.
A group gathers to protest against social isolation rules of the COVID-19 pandemic in Edmonton, Alta., on April 29, 2020.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jason Franson
As Canadian provinces begin to ease COVID-19 restrictions, is it an exercise of one’s constitutional rights to protest or disobey those that continue to exist?
An elderly woman looks out from Maison Herron, a long-term care home in the Montréal suburb of Dorval on April 12, 2020. Isolating people in facilities where they are at greater risk of contracting COVID-19 is a violation of their rights.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes
Civil liberties violations look very different in pandemics. That’s why the Canadian Civil Liberties Association is looking into who has been detained and fined, and why, during the pandemic.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is seen with Québec Premier Francois Legault in December 2018 at the opening of a first ministers’ meeting. Legault has accused Trudeau of insulting Québecers because of the federal Court Challenges Program.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Paul Chiasson
Anne Levesque, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of Ottawa
Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms doesn’t mean much if it can’t be enforced. That’s why the Court Challenges Program is so important — no matter what the Québec premier says.
The statue of Veritas (Truth) is pictured in front of the Supreme Court of Canada in Ottawa in May 2018.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick
Jennifer Quaid, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of Ottawa
A Québec company is asking for a Charter right usually reserved for people. There could be unintended consequences if it wins its challenge to the Supreme Court of Canada.
Controversy erupted after a lecturer at the University of Alberta posted on Facebook in November that the Holomodor is a “myth.” Canada recognized the Holomodor — the death of millions of Ukrainians in 1932–33 due to Soviet policies — as an act of genocide in 2008. Here, the Holodomor Memorial, Kyiv, Ukraine.
(Flickr/Matt Shalvatis)
Those teaching in publicly funded universities should be held accountable for denying the public record, whether in their classrooms or beyond.
Honouring religious freedom and behaving faithfully in public not only protect the rights of individuals but also safeguard the integrity of democratic governments.
Peter Hershey/Unsplash
Respecting religious freedom not only protects the rights of individuals, it safeguards the integrity and accountability of democratic governments.
Students walk past a cross on campus at Trinity Western University in Langley, B.C., in February 2017. The school was at the centre of a court battle pitting equality rights against freedom of religion.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck
We must acknowledge that shifting historically vulnerable groups away from the margins means making room in spaces where these groups have not traditionally been welcomed.
Catholic pronouncements about LGBTQ people can be summarized as, “It’s OK to be gay - Just don’t act on it,” a position some Catholics reject.
Shutterstock
Using Catholic doctrine to fire LGBTQ teachers and discriminate against queer students in Catholic schools violates the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) members stand on picket line in Halifax in October 2018 after a call for a series of rotating 24-hour strikes.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ted Pritchard
Ordering Canada’s postal workers back on the job may hurt Justin Trudeau. CUPW could direct its anger directly at the Trudeau Liberals ahead of the 2019 federal election.
Professor, Research Chair in Language Rights, Faculty of Law | Professeur, Chaire de recherche Droits et enjeux linguistiques, Faculté de droit. 2021 Fellow, Fondation Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of Ottawa