Canadian Bill Of Rights History

Canada’s premier origin of its Constitution dates back to the year of 1960 where the first legislation of human rights protection was passed and titled the Canadian Bill of Rights. The ideology behind this Bill was to ensure equality and freedom of to its citizens. However, the Canadian Bill of Rights was not constitutionally entrenched meaning that it was subject to amendment at the governments will. Though, in 1968, once Pierre Elliott Trudeau was elected as prime minister of Canada, he made it his mission to constitutionally entrench a charter of rights that would be constitutionally binding on both the federal and provincial levels of government. Following the events of Trudeau’s elections, a draft of the Canadian Constitutional Charter was presented in May of

This draft is commonly referred to as the Victorian Charter and guaranteed and language rights to all ten provinces however, Saskatchewan and Quebec were not satisfied and asked for the document to be amended. Despite their obligations, Trudeau was intent constitutionally entrenching the charter of rights. With the Quebec referendum of 1980, Trudeau was able to introduce a resolution in parliament on October of 1980 which included a proposal for the charter of right which furthered the controversy. Government officials were concerned that this draft transferred undue power from elected politicians and into the hands of unelected and unaccountable judges as well as offering a limited protection of individual rights. Which eventually led to the incorporation of the notwithstanding clause within the charter, which ultimately allows the federal government or a provincial legislature to enact legislation to override several sections of the Charter that deal with fundamental freedoms, legal rights and equality rights. And finally, in 1982 the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms preceded the Canadian Bill of Rights and entrenched within the