The fundamental rights and freedoms guaranteed to everybody in Canada through the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms are crucial to a free and democratic society. Some of these rights are so present in our daily lives that we might exercise them without even realizing it. They allow us to speak up about issues we care about, to peacefully protest for our vision of a better world, to exercise our religion freely, and to collectively bargain for better working conditions.
Other fundamental rights are there to protect us when we are at our most vulnerable. They ensure that every individual is treated equally under the law. They protect our life, liberty and security. They ensure that we are not arbitrarily detained and that we are presumed innocent of an offence until proven guilty.
Shockingly, our provincial and federal governments can try to deprive us of the protection of these rights by using the notwithstanding clause – section 33 of the Charter. This clause allows governments to pass laws that do not comply with certain rights and freedoms protected by the Charter.
While governments have historically rarely used the notwithstanding clause, this is no longer the case. Recently, provincial governments have used or attempted to use the clause to:
- prevent education workers from striking;
- ban some provincial government employees from expressing their faith through the wearing of religious symbols;
- prevent non-French speakers from receiving services in other languages;
- reveal the identities of trans youth to their parents before they are ready to do so themselves.
These uses of the notwithstanding clause have already caused horrendous harms to marginalized and vulnerable groups. If nothing is done, this could very well be just a start. Governments could one day try to use the notwithstanding clause to ban speech critical of people in power or to imprison people without giving them a fair trial.
Now is the time to save our Charter. For years, CCLA has been challenging before the courts egregious uses of the notwithstanding clause, but there is something you can do, too. Sign this petition to join CCLA in calling on our governments to enact laws that will expressly limit how the notwithstanding clause can be used. Together, we can get governments to accept that this clause should only be used in extraordinary and justifiable circumstances – not to allow egregious rights violations or to weaken legal protections for marginalized and vulnerable groups.
