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Yes but Canada doesn't work like the US. They don't have constitutional free speech or rights to assemble.
by tylersmith 5y ago
Yes but Canada doesn't work like the US. They don't have constitutional free speech or rights to assemble.
- 542458 5y agoMy link is to the section from our charter on the freedom of assembly. Our freedom of assembly and freedom of speech are understood differently than yours.
- sudosysgen 5y agoOur Charter is not an analogue to the US constitution. It can be suspended (and routinely is) by the government.
- 542458 5y agoThe charter is explicitly part of the Canadian constitution. The notwithstanding clause or override is only very rarely invoked (and in many provinces has never been invoked).
- sudosysgen 5y agoIt has been used repeatedly, and it's not just provinces either, the federal government can also use it. It's not really rare, it crops up every few years.
- 542458 5y agoLegislation invoking the clause has been enacted only five times across all of Canada. In one of those cases no rights were suspended and invoking it was unnecessary. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Section_33_of_the_Canadian_Charter_of_Rights_and_Freedoms https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Section_33_of_the_Canadian_C... I would count 4 invocations that actually did something (all of which were limited to single provinces) across the past 40 years to be fairly rare.
- sudosysgen 5y agoActually, the first invocation was an "Omnibus" invocation, which contained around a dozen separate invocations in itself. Beyond that, no, even 4 invocations isn't small at all. A single invocation is potentially devastating. It's been completely normalized in Quebec, for example.
- FpUser 5y agoI consider this notwithstanding clause as a public embarrassment. It basically castrates our freedoms.