the charter at 25

Last week marked the 25th birthday of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, Canada's constitutional bill of rights. It was signed by the Queen on April 17, 1982.

In contrast with the seemingly endless commemorations of Canada's part in that most useless of wars, there is very little fuss being made about this much more significant anniversary.

The Harper Government did not participate in the conference at McGill University held to study and discuss the Charter. The Prime Minister himself did nothing to mark the anniversary, a decision former Prime Minister Jean Chrétien finds shocking.

Many people read into Harper's decision a general disdain for Charter rights, which may be so. But given Harper's shrewd and constant political maneuvering, I'm more inclined to read this as a political move, not wishing to be seen celebrating a Liberal legacy (or to invoke the memory of Liberal icon Pierre Trudeau), and playing to socially conservative voters who see the Charter as the downfall of their imagined good old days. (You know, when men were men and women knowed their place!)

Besides the Government's lack of fervor, the media isn't making much of a fuss, and there seems to be little (nothing?) being done to mark the anniversary for ordinary Canadians. I've been reading essays in the Star and Globe and Mail, but a reader could easily miss the news altogether. This is a real shame. The Charter is much more relevant than a battle fought 80 years ago; it represents what is best about Canada today.

Here's a guide to The Charter which explains each section.

Here's an essay about the Charter's significance by Errol Mendes, professor of constitutional and human rights law at the University of Ottawa.

There are moments in the history of a people and a country that profoundly affect the evolution of that society in a way that changes them forever. There was such a transformation in Canada on April 17, 1982, when the Queen signed the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

The Charter was a product of the aspirations of Pierre Trudeau and his followers to unify their country under a document that they hoped would produce a common citizenship, which would unite French and English and all the communities that constituted the emergence of a multicultural and global society.

Trudeau also hoped the Charter would bring Canada into the mainstream of the international human rights movement triggered by the horrors of World War II.

The Charter was also the product of a ferocious desire of those citizens who wanted to see their identity and rights not left out of this new, vibrant vision of Canada.

Thus women's groups, disability rights groups, ethnocultural groups, linguistic minorities, religious communities and other equality seeking groups fought and succeeded in having their identity and rights recognized in the Charter.

The Charter was also the product of a globally unique form of Canadian accommodation between majority rule in a parliamentary democracy and the fundamental values and rights of Canadians.

. . . .

If the purpose of the Charter was to cement a common citizenship in an often ruthless global economy and society, those aspirations have been and will continue to be severely tested.

There will be Charter-based demands that governments do more to protect the most vulnerable in areas such as mental health, the elderly and the homeless. In addition, the mutating face of terrorism, organized crime and other societal threats will bring rights in conflict with the search for protection in an increasingly dangerous world.

In the face of such challenges, those who fought to have the Charter become part of the fabric of Canadian society must fight to ensure the original vision does not weaken because it speaks to the nobility of the Canadian spirit and of all Canadians.