INTRODUCTION
What follows is a partial copy of the contents of a publication
by the Government of Canada entitled "The Charter of Rights and
Freedoms A Guide for Canadians". Only that text which is in
heavy type is included, and the commentary supporting and
associated with it have been omitted.
The inside cover lists the following specifications;
Minister of Supply and Services Canada 1982
Cat. No. CP 45-24/1982-1
ISBN 0-662-51913-2
A copy of this document may be obtained from the Queen's Printer
(if it isn't privatized) in New Westminster, B.C., or anywhere
else in Canada by writing to;
Publications Canada
P.O. Box 1986
Station B
Ottawa, Canada
K1P 6G6
Also included on the inside cover is the following;
"This publication is not a legal document. The notes in the
booklet are for explanatory purposes only, and are not to be
taken as legal interpretations of the provisions of the Charter."
Anyone who can and does add contents to this file is requested to
make an appropriate note here.
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Guarantee of Rights and Freedoms
1. The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms
guarantees the rights and freedoms set out in it subject
only to reasonable limits prescribed by law as can be
demonstrably justified in a free and democratic society.
2. Everyone has the following fundamental freedoms:
a) freedom of concience and religion;
b) freedom of thought, beleif, opinion and
expression,including freedom of the press
and other media of communication;
c) freedom of peaceful assembly; and
d) freedom of association.
3. Every citizen of Canada has a right to vote in an
election of members of the House of Commons or of a
legislative assembly and to be qualified for membership
therin.
4. (1) No House of Commons and no legislative assembly
shall continue or longer than five years from
the date fixed for the return of the writs at a
general election of its members.
(2) In time of real or apprehended war, invasion, or
insurrection, a House of Commons may be
continued by Parliament and a legislative
assembly may be continued by the legislature
beyond five years if such continuation is not
opposed by the votes of more than one-third of
the members of the House of Commons or the
legislative assembly, as the case may be.
5. There shall be a sitting of Parliament and of each
legislature at least once every twelve months.
6. (1) Every citizen of Canada has a right to enter,
remain in and leave Canada.
(2) Every citizen of Canada and every person who has
the status of a permanent resident of Canada has
the right
(a) to move and take up residence in any
province; and
(b) to pursue the gaining of a livlihood in
any province.
(3) The rights specified in subsection (2) are
subject to
(a) any laws or practices of general
application in force in province other
than those that discriminate among
persons primarily on the basis of
province of present or previous
residence; and
(b) any laws providing for reasonable
residency requirements as a
qualification for the receipt of
publicly provided social services.
(4) Subsections (2) and (3) do not preclude any law,
program or activity that has as its objective
the amelioration in a province of conditions of
individuals in that province who are socially or
economically disadvantaged if the rate of
employment in that province is below the rate of
employment in Canada.
7. Everyone has the right to life, liberty and the
security of the person and the right not to be deprived
thereof except in accordance with the principles of
fundamental justice
8. Everyone has the right to be secure against
unreasonable search or seizure
9. Everyone has the right not to be arbitrarily
detained or imprisoned.
10. Everyone has the right on arrest or detention
a) to be informed promptly of the reason
therefor;
b) to retain and instruct counsel without
delay and to be informed of that right;
and
c) to have the validity of the detention
determined by way of Habeus Corpus and to be
released if the detention is not lawful.
11. Any person charged with an offence has the right
a) to be informed without unreasonable delay
of the specific offence;
b) to be tried within a reasonable time;
c) not to be compelled to be a witness in
proceedings against that person in respect
of the offence;
d) to be presumed innocent until proven
guilty according to law in a fair and public
hearing by an independent and impartial
tribunal;
e) not to be denied reasonable bail without
just cause;
f) except in the case of an offence under
military law tried before a military
tribunal, to the benefit of trial by jury
where the maximum punishment for the offence
is imprisonment for five years or a more
severe punishment;
g) not to be found guilty on account of any
act or omission unless, at the time of the
act or omission, it constituted an offence
under Canadian or internatinal law or was
criminal according to the general principles
of law recognized by the community of
nations;
h) if finally acquitted of the offence, not
to be tried for it again and, if finally
found guilty and punished for the offence,
not to be tried or punished for it again;
and
i) if found guilty of the offence and if the
punishment for the offence has been varied
between the time of commission and the time
of sentencing, to the benefit of the lesser
punishment.
12. Everyone has the right not to be subjected to any
cruel and unusual treatment or punishment.
13. A witness who testifies in any proceedings has the
right not to have any incriminating evidence so given used
to incriminate that witness in any other proceedings, except
in a prosecution for perjury or for the giving of
contradictory evidence.
14. A party or witness in any proceedings who does not
understand or speak the language in which the proceedings
are conducted or who is deaf has the right to the assistance
of an interpreter.
Equality Rights
15. 1) Every individual is equal before and under the
law and has the right to the equal protection and
equal benefit of the law without discrimination
and, in particular, without discrimination based
on race, national or ethnic origin, colour,
religion, sex, age or mental or physical
disability.
2) Subsection (1) does not preclude any law, program
or activity that has as its object the
amelioration of conditions of disadvantaged
individuals or groups including those that are
disadvantaged because of race, national or ethnic
origin, colour, religion, sex, age or mental or
physical disability.
Official Languages of Canada
16. 1) English and French are the official languages of
Canada and have equality of status and equal
rights and priveleges as to their use in all
institutions of the Parliament and government of
Canada.
2) English and French are the official languages of
New Brunswick and have equality of status and
equal rights and priveleges as to their use in
all institutions of the legislature and
government of New Brunswick.
3) Nothing in this Charter limits the authority of
Parliament or a legislature to advance the
equality of status or use of English and French.
17. 1) Everyone has the right to use English or French
in any debates and other proceedings of the
legislature of New Brunswick.
2) Everyone has the right to use English or French
in any debates or other proceedings of the
legislature of New Brunswick.
18. 1) The status, records and journals of Parliament
shall be printed and published in English and
French and both language versions are equally
authoritative.
2) The statutes, records and journals of the
legislature of New Brunswick shall be printed
and published in English and French and both
language versions are equally authoritative.
19. 1) Either English or French may be used by any
person in, or in any pleading in or process
issuing from, any court established by
Parliament.
2) Either English or French may be used by any
person in, or in any pleading in or process
issuing from, any court of New Brunswick.
20. 1) Any member of the public in Canada has the right
to communicate with, and to receive available
services from, any head or central office of an
institution of the Parliament or government of
Canada in English or French, and has the same
right with respect to any other office of any such
institution when
a) There is a significant demand for
communications with and services from that
office in such language; or
b) due to the nature of the office, it is
reasonable that communications with and
services from that office be available in
both English and French.
2) Any member of the public in New Brunswick has the
right to communicate with, and to receive available
services from, any office of an institution of the
legislature or government of New Brunswick in English
or French.
21. Nothing in sections 16 to 20 abrogates or derogates
from any right, privelege or obligation with respect to the
English and French languages, or either of them, that exists
or is continued by virtue of any other provision of the
Constitution of Canada.
22. Nothing in sections 16 to 20 abrogates or derogates
from any legal or customary right or priveleges acquired or
enjoyed either before or after the coming into force of this
Charter with respect to any language that is not English or
French.
23. 1) Citizens of Canada
a) whose first language learned and first
understood is that of the English or French
linguistic minority population of the
province in which they reside, or
b) who have received their primary school
instruction in Canada in English or French
and reside in a province where the language
in which they received that instruction is the
language of the English or French linguistic
minority population of the province.
.......have the right to have their children receive primary
and secondary school instruction in that language in
that province.
2) Citizens of Canada of whom any child has received or is
receiving primary or secondary school instruction in
English or French in Canada, have the right to have all
their children receive primary and secondary school
instruction in the same language.
3) The right of citizens of Canada under subsections (1)
and (2) to have their children receive primary and
secondary school instruction in the language of the
English or French linguistic minority population of a
province
a) applies wherever in the province the number
of children of citizens who have such a right
is suffucient to warrant the provision to them
out of public funds of minority language
instruction; and
b) includes, where the number of those children so
warrants, the right to have them receive that
instruction in minority language educational
facilities provided out of public funds.
59. 1) Paragraph 23(1)(a) shall come into force in respect of
Quebec on a day to be fixed by proclaimation issued by
the Queen or Governor General under the Great Seal of
Canada.
2) A proclaimation under subsection (1) shall be issued
only where authorized by the legislative assembly or
government of Quebec.
3) This section may be repealed on the day paragraph
23(1)(a) comes into force in respect of Quebec and
this Act amended and renumbered, consequential upon the
repeal of this section, by proclaimation issued by the
Queen or the Governor General under the Great Seal of
Canada.*
(* Section 59 of the Constitution Act, 1982, is not a part of the
Charter of Rights and Freedoms. However, it is reproduced here
because it directly relates to the subject of minority language
education rights.
Enforcement
24. 1) Anyone whose rights or freedoms, as guaranteed by this
Charter, have been infringed or denied may apply to a
court of competent jurisdiction to obtain such remedy
as the court considers appropriate and just in the
circumstances.
2) Where, in proceedings under subsection (1), a court
concludes that evidence was obtained in a manner that
infringed or denied any rights or freedoms guaranteed
by this charter, the evidence shall be excluded if it
is established that, having regard to the circumstances,
the admission of it in the proceedings would bring the
administration of justice into disrepute.
General
25. The guarantee in this Charter of certain rights and
freedoms shall not be construed so as to abrogate or derogate from
any aboriginal, treaty or other rights or freedoms that pertain to
the aboriginal peoples of Canada including
a) any rights or freedoms that have been
recognized by the Royal Proclamation of October
7, 1763; and
b) any rights or freedoms that may be acquired by
the aboriginal peoples of Canada by way of land
claims settlement.
26. The guarantee in this Charter of certain rights and freedoms
shall not be construed as denying the existance of any other rights or
freedoms that exist in Canada.
27. This Charter shall be interpreted in a manner consistant with
the preservation and enhancement of the multicultural heritage of
Canadians.
28. Notwithstanding anything in this Charter, the rights and
freedoms referred to in it are guaranteed equally to male and female
persons.
29. Nothing in this Charter abrogates or derogates from any
rights or priveleges guaranteed by or under the Constitution of
Canada in respect of denominational, separate or dissentient schools.
30. A reference in this Charter to a province or to the
legislative assembly or legislature of a province shall be deemed to
a reference to the Yukon Territory and the Northwest Territories, or
to the appropriate legislative authority thereof, as the case may be.
31. Nothing in this Charter extends the legislative powers of
any body or authority.
Application of Charter
32. 1) This Charter applies
a) to the Parliament and government of Canada in
respect of all matters within the authority of
Parliament including all matters relating to
the Yukon Territory and the Northwest
Territories; and
b) to the legislature and government of each
province in respect of all matters within the
authority of the legislature of each province.
2) Notwithstanding subsection (1), section 15 shall not
have effect until three years after this section comes
into force.
33. 1) Parliament or the legislature of a province may
expressly declare in an Act of Parliament or of the
legislature, as the case may be, that the Act or a
provision thereof shall operate notwithstanding a
provision included in section 2 or sections 7 to 15 of
this Charter.
2) An Act or a provision of an Act in respect of which a
declaration made under this section is in effect shall
have such operation as it would have but for the
provision of this Charter referred to in the
declaration.
3) A declaration made under subsection (1) shall cease to
have effect five years after it comes into force or on
such earlier date as may be specified in the declaration.
4) Parliament or a legislature of a province may re-enact a
declaration made under subsection (1).
5) Subsection (3) aoolies in respect of a re-enactment made
under subsectioin (4).
Citation
34. This part may be cited as the 'Canadian Charter of Rights
and Freedoms'.
end.../OS
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