Anytime I see the words "Harper and his gang" in an email I stop
reading. Since it is about bias and not about information.
Arthur
*From:*[email protected]
[mailto:[email protected]] *On Behalf Of *michael
gurstein
*Sent:* Wednesday, April 25, 2012 10:15 AM
*To:* [email protected]; 'RE-DESIGNING WORK, INCOME
DISTRIBUTION, EDUCATION'; 'Keith Hudson'
*Subject:* Re: [Futurework] [Ottawadissenters] Re: Charter of Rights
and Freedoms
The Canadian Charter has worked very well in the opinion of many
because it has been linked to a highly competent, independent,
and flexible judiciary. What that has meant is that not only has
the Charter taken on a significance that it might not have
otherwise had but it has also acted as a counterweight to a
political system which is increasingly out of touch with the
population. (This was not an inevitable result of the creation of
the Charter and given a different judiciary it could have gone the
other way entirely.)
The Harper government's regressive use of its 39% elected
Parliamentary majority to politicize a range of areas that should
not have been politicized--the census, environmental protection,
civil society advocacy, Overseas Development Assistance, and so on
is almost certainly out of keeping with the fundamental values of
Canadians as a whole who have if anything, become more
socially/normatively progressive over time. The just concluded
election in Alberta which pitted a hard (Harperite) right wing
Wild Rose party, against a centrist _Progressive_ Conservative
party saw a very significant repudiation of Harper and his gang
the reverberations of which will be very long lasting and may
result in some interesting developments both within the Harper
government and beyond.
That election is also of more than local interest since the centre
of Canadian economic gravity has in recent times swung
significantly to the resource based prairies (Alberta and
Saskatchewan) and Alberta was presented with a clear choice
between a self centred backward/inward looking hard rightist party
and a forward looking/bridge building center party prepared to
take on a nationally constructive leadership role. This is
particularly important for a number of reasons not least of which are:
1. that Harper and his gang have been actively looking to
reduce the role of the central government in favour of the
Provinces (where there is now, or at least soon -- after the
upcoming BC election -- will be a centre to centre left majority
2. there is an upcoming election in Quebec where the
separatist Parti Quebecois would most certainly have been running
against Harper and co. as the hard right representatives of
"Canada" and with the Alberta election will not be as able to do this
3. the upcoming renegotiation of the national Health care
agreement which Harper has been shoving onto the Provinces but
where now with a centrist Alberta government Harper's attempt to
gut Canadian medicare will likely be thwarted.
M
-----Original Message-----
*From:* [email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]>
[mailto:[email protected]] *On Behalf Of *Ed Weick
*Sent:* Wednesday, April 25, 2012 6:44 AM
*To:* RE-DESIGNING WORK, INCOME DISTRIBUTION, EDUCATION; Keith Hudson
*Cc:* [email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]>
*Subject:* [Ottawadissenters] Re: Charter of Rights and Freedoms
Keith,
The point I would make is that it is good to have a document such
as the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms in place even if a
society is changing rapidly. I found our charter very useful
when I worked on Aboriginal land claims and self-government a
couple of decades ago. Had the Charter not existed, the case that
had to be made would have been much less certain.
One thing that bothered me when the 30th anniversary of the
Charter was being celebrated recently was the attitude of our
present federal government. The Prime Minister, Stephen
Harper, said something like, well, yes, there is a Charter, but so
what, we've moved on since then. It seemed not only like a
refusal to recognize the Charter's fundamental place and
significance, but a desire to suppress its role and place in the
affairs of our nation. Other steps the Harper government has
taken also suggest a shift away from values that have underlain
our nation during recent decades. Examples are imposing limits on
the process of assessing the impacts of large industrial projects,
cutting back on the range of data that Statistics Canada can
collect, and the muzzling of scientists who work for agencies such
as Environment Canada. It seems as though we are being moved from
an economically diversified and liberal modern nation to something
being driven from the top to satisfy the purposes of certain
interests and regions. Alberta oil and Saskatchewan potash are
rising while what goes on in the rest of Canada is no longer of
much significance. Personally, I'm not happy with it.
Ed
----- Original Message -----
*From:*Keith Hudson <mailto:[email protected]>
*To:*RE-DESIGNING WORK, INCOME DISTRIBUTION, EDUCATION
<mailto:[email protected]> ; Ed Weick
<mailto:[email protected]>
*Sent:*Wednesday, April 25, 2012 4:20 AM
*Subject:*Re: [Futurework] Charter of Rights and Freedoms
Ed,
I much enjoyed reading your piece. Twenty-odd years ago we had
a movement called Charter 88 in the UK which called for a Bill
of Rights. We don't have a written Constitution apart from a
few statutory documents scattered throughout our history,
starting with the Magna Charta of 1215 and, since 1959, formal
acceptance of the jurisdiction of the European Court of Human
Rights. However, although the findings of the ECHR have so far
been accepted by the British government, there are many
grumbles about it and attempts are made from time to time to
change the underlying written Convention. In other words we
have a sort of Constitution but it has nowhere near the
authority as yours or America's because there are still
cultural differences in notions of justice between us and most
of the rest of Europe. The reason for this is that we
proceeded to human rights in a largely peaceful stepwise
fashion during the 19th century whereas almost every country
of Europe had experienced violent changes starting with the
French Revolution of 1789 and largely culminating in major
revolutions almost everywhere in the notorious years around
1848. The results of most of these included written detailed
statements of newly gained human rights in much more detail
than the UK has ever done.
The European Court of Human Rights is free-standing and is not
directly linked to the European Union. However, if ever the EU
breaks up (which I think is highly likely once its smaller
offspring, the Eurozone, does) then I would guess that the UK
(and some other European countries) would restore UK case law
superiority over the decisions of the ECHR (although mainly
based on the written law of the European Convention some case
law is added from time to time by its topmost judicial layer,
the Grand Chamber). I think there'll also be a renewed
campaign for a written Constitution of our own.
I've always been in favour of a written Constitution but in
the last few years I've been less enthusiastic. Modern life is
changing very fast. Constitutions (necessarily) are slow to
adapt to new circumstances and dilemmas. Case law (otherwise
known as equity law or common law) is quicker to adapt even
though, in any particularly novel circumstance, case law
decisions may wobble this way and that before settling down
into a consensus which is then followed. Case law can
encompass shades of decisions which are more subtle (and
fairer) than written law.
Keith
At 22:56 24/04/2012, you wrote:
Along with the repatriation of the Canadian Constitution, the
Charter of Rights and Freedoms got a lot of attention a few
days ago because it all happened thirty years ago. I was
looking through some ancient stuff I'd written years ago and
found the following. You may or may not find it interesting.
Ed
*July 1, 2003*,
Canada Day! It was once "Dominion Day", which I still prefer,
perhaps for no better reason than I grew up with it. Yet
"Canada Day" may really be better. "Dominion" suggests that
someone is lording it over us, and that is no longer true.
It was still true when I was a kid in the 1930s and 1940s.
Perhaps no one was lording it over us in terms of telling us
what we, as a nation, could and couldn't do, but the mindset
was there. We sang "God Save the King" before school or movies
started, our teachers made us sing about the glories of the
British navy, and we studied British history on the assumption
that Canada had no history without Britain. It all made those
of us whose parents didn't come from the British Isles feel a
little second class.
So much has changed over the past fifty years. Canadians now
willingly and openly recognize their diversity. Whether one's
forebears came from Britain, Central Europe, the Caribbean,
Africa, or Asia doesn't matter. What matters is citizenship.
If you have that, you are guaranteed equality of treatment
under the law, and you are guaranteed equality of access to
services available to all citizens. And your children no
longer have to sing about the British navy keeping the foes at
bay unless they want to.
I like to think that the biggest step in recognizing and
defining what it means to be Canadian was the passage of the
Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, Part 1 of the
Constitution Act, 1982. Included among our rights and freedoms
as citizens are: freedom of expression; the right to a
democratic government; the right to live and to seek
employment anywhere in Canada; legal rights of persons accused
of crimes; Aboriginal peoples' rights; the right to equality,
including the equality of men and women; the right to use
either of Canada's official languages; the right of French and
English linguistic minorities to an education in their
language; and the protection of Canada's multicultural
heritage. If you have ever traveled in countries whose
citizens do not have such rights and freedoms, you'll
recognize their importance.
But many countries have rights and freedoms on paper without a
good system of courts to back them up. Here Canada has been
fortunate. Its courts, based on the British system, have
always been good. Nevertheless, the existence of
Constitutionally entrenched rights and freedoms, and the need
to interpret what they mean in particular circumstances, has
greatly raised our court system's profile. That the legal
system is now in a position of some parity with the political
system has caused politicians more than a little discomfort.
They feel and often publicly argue that power has shifted away
from them, thus impairing their ability to do what they have
been elected to do in a democratic society. I don't agree.
Politicians have done some rather awful things in the past,
and there's no guarantee that they wouldn't do them again in
future. In my opinion, any increase in the ability to
challenge arbitrary power is a good thing, and that is what
the Charter of Rights and Freedoms enables us to do.
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<http://allisstatus.wordpress.com/>
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