OK, technically it wasn't its actual birthday, but it was close enough. On April 19, 2017, the Centre for Constitutional Studies gave a noon-hour crash course on Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms-precisely 35 years and two days after the document's formal ratification in 1982.
As CCS Executive Director Patricia Paradis pointed out, 2017 represents two very important anniversaries. The first, as most are well aware, is the 150th anniversary of the British North America Act on 1867, which birthed Canada as a nation state, and of its Constitution. 2017 also marks the 35th anniversary of the Constitution Act, 1982, which saw Canada patriate its Constitution from the United Kingdom and add the Charter of Rights and Freedoms to it.
The Charter, Paradis explained, is a document that remains an enigma to many Canadians, but one that has nonetheless had an outsized impact on the country.
"It has packed a powerful punch, much more so than many of its drafters had foreseen, or frankly even wanted," she explained.
After briefly summarizing the tumultuous history of the Constitution Act-from the tabling of a draft Canadian Charter of Human Rights in 1968 by the then newly minted Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau to the signing of the Constitution Act in 1982-Paradis dove into the contents of the Charter, a document which, she explained, is Part 1 of the Constitution as it currently exists. The document is divided into 34 sections, of which numbers 2 to 23 pertain to specific rights and freedoms. Other key sections include 24, which covers enforcement, and 33, which contains the override/notwithstanding clause.
As a document of "supreme law" (overriding all other laws) born, in the words of one of its drafters, , "more through the dynamics of politics and public opinion than through philosophical imperatives," the Charter has proven to be a remarkably flexible document that has moved deftly with the times. In particular, the document has proven versatile in dealing with issues such as sexual orientation which the Vriend v Alberta case of 1998 brought to the fore, and physician-assistant dying, as highlighted by the 2015 Supreme Court case Carter v Canada.
What is the legacy of the Charter 35 years on?
"Apart from creating a lot more work for lawyers, the Charter has impacted this country in several significant ways," said Paradis.
"For better or for worse it's made our courts a lot more active. It's succeeded in fostering an enhanced sense of national unity. And it's gone a long way towards promoting a human rights culture in Canada. The Charter was a bold creation and we are fortunate to have it in our Constitution.
Happy anniversary!