The Charter Of Rights And Freedoms - 2537 Words

This essay will argue the reasons behind the notwithstanding clause remaining within the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. In this paper, I will provide reasons as to why the clause should be kept within the Charter beginning with the arguments that it is an essential element in critical policy decisions being made by politicians and it s hard to remove which requires the amending formula to be used if changes are to be made. On the other side, its use in policy can create grave and problematic judicial activism in the eyes of those who oppose it. In the next few paragraphs, I will define my terms, introduce a brief history of the charter and the notwithstanding clause and describe the positions from both sides regarding its use,†¦show more content†¦The Charter was designed to bring together Canadians around an agreed upon set of principles that embody and clearly define those rights. After being signed by Queen Elizabeth II on April 17th, 1982 the Charter became la w. The rights and freedoms specified in the charter are listed under Section 24 and include; Fundamental freedoms, democratic, mobility, legal, equality, language and minority language education rights. The notwithstanding clause written in article 33 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms has been an extremely contentious topic since its introduction at a November 1981 Federal-Provincial Conference of First Ministers of Canada. As said by Jean Chretien, Minister of Justice The objective â€Å"of an override [notwithstanding] clause is to provide the flexibility that is required to ensure that legislatures rather than judges have the final say on important matters of public policy† (Grover, 2005, p. [Page 479]). The clause allows Parliament or provincial governments to override the following sections; 2, containing the fundamental rights and freedoms of Canadians and sections 7-15 providing the right to life, liberty, security of person, the right to equality and a number of other legal rights. One’s guarantee of total equality in all things can also be suspended. However, the clause cannot be applied to any issues that relate to the democratic governmental sys tem of Canada, our language rights and the ability of our