Four decades after it was proclaimed Canada's Charter of Rights continues to be violated by governments and politicians. This is unacceptable and needs to change.

By Fareed Khan

Forty years ago on April 17th, before a nationally televised audience, Canadians watched as Queen Elizabeth II and then Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau put their signatures on the Canadian Constitution, making it the law of the land, and gave Canadians the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Until the Charter came into force Canada’s parliament, provincial legislatures, and ultimately politicians had the final say on the rights of individuals.  Prior to the Charter governments could take actions that violated the fundamental rights of Canadians, who had limited recourse to challenge those actions.  Notorious historic examples include the “head tax“ on prospective Chinese immigrants, the internment of Japanese Canadians during World War 2, and denying the right to vote to Indigenous people until 1960 among others.

Some of the rights set out in the Charter are fundamental freedoms of conscience and religion, thought, belief, opinion and expression, freedoms of the “press”, movement, peaceful assembly and association, and rights to life, liberty and security of person, due process, and equality.  However, as the Charter enters its fifth decade Canadians have to remember that while it gives us recourse to the courts if our rights are violated, the mere existence of the Charter has not eliminated the likelihood of governments and politicians choosing to violate those rights.

Since the Charter was proclaimed Canadians have witnessed numerous examples of the Charter rights of Canadians being violated by governments through legislation, and the use of the “notwithstanding” clause (Sec. 33).  This was the case for Indigenous people as Liberal and Conservative governments continued to violate the rights of Indigenous children and their families by allowing Residential Schools to operate until 1997. 

Some of the most notorious incidents of Charter rights violations in recent history occurred after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, when all Muslims became terrorism suspects, and national security laws were applied to this community with extreme prejudice. Two Muslim Canadians who experienced this first hand were Maher Arar and Omar Khadr.  Canadian government officials were complicit in Arar being imprisoned and tortured in Syria for supposed connections to Al-Qaeda, and the Charter rights of former child soldier Khadr were also violated when he was illegally imprisoned for 10 years in America’s Guantanamo Bay prison, where he was tortured with the knowledge and complicity of Canadian security officials.  In each case lawyers for Arar and Khadr sued the Canadian government, which admitted fault and paid more than CAD$10 million in compensation to each of them.

Across Canada there have also been frequent incidents during the past 40 years where the rights of Black Canadians and Indigenous people were repeatedly violated by governments and police.

In July 2016 Abdirahman Abdi, a Black man residing in Ottawa, died after being beaten by police during his arrest.  The officer who was charged for his murder was acquitted.  In June 2020, in the aftermath of anti-racism protests across the country highlighting police brutality against racialized people, police in New Brunswick killed two Indigenous people, Chantal Moore and Rodney Levi, in what were supposed to be “wellness” checks.  The officers involved in Moore’s and Levi’s deaths were never criminally charged despite calls from Indigenous leaders for charges to be laid.

Since 2019 Canadians have also been witness to the Quebec government violating the Charter rights of racialized religious minorities under its Bill 21 “secularism” law.  Federal leaders have been complicit in this and have enabled the law by not forcefully challenging it or demanding that it be directly referred to the Supreme Court.  The law is currently facing a Charter rights challenge by the Canadian Civil Liberties Association and the National Council of Canadian Muslims.

Furthermore, for over 14 years the federal government has been defying a Canadian Human RIghts Tribunal (CHRT) decision in support of more than 165,000 Indigenous children discriminated against under the child welfare system.  Under both Conservative and Liberal governments the CHRT Tribunal’s decision and court decisions upholding it have been challenged and appealed repeatedly in the courts, thereby denying justice to those affected.

These are only a handful of examples which demonstrate that the existence of the Charter is no guarantee that the rights of Canadians will be protected by those charged with protecting them.  They also show that governments and their agencies are willing to sacrifice the fundamental rights of Canadians if it is expedient, as is apparent by the fact that over the 40 years of the Charter being part of Canadian law Indigenous people, Black Canadians, Muslim Canadians and others have repeatedly had their rights violated, and have had to fight to ensure that their rights are upheld.

The Charter is a document that needs to be celebrated because it has enabled the abrogation of various unconstitutional laws.  But Canadians need to be aware of the reality that it has been ignored and repeatedly violated by those who are charged with protecting our fundamental rights under the Charter.

As Canadians enter the fifth decade of the Charter being the law of the land we must remember that our basic rights and freedoms are only guaranteed if we stand up to defend them.  It means challenging and taking action against those governments and public officials who believe that while we are all equal before the law some are less equal than others because of our racial background, ethnicity, faith, sexual identity, and other characteristics identified in the Charter.

If Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms is to live up to the potential contained in its words over the next four decades it is up to all of us to make sure that defence of the fundamental rights of Canadians becomes a core value of our public institutions, and the people who lead our governments.  Anything less is unacceptable and a failure of political leadership.

© 2022 The View From Here.  © 2022 Fareed Khan.  All rights reserved.

Racism is a reality in Canada’s domestic and foreign policy, as are its weak efforts to fight white supremacy and hate

By Fareed Khan

Four weeks ago, on March 21st, the world marked the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.  It is the day in 1960 when police in Sharpeville, South Africa, opened fire and killed 69 people at a peaceful demonstration against Apartheid "pass laws".  In 1979, the General Assembly adopted a programme of activities to be undertaken during the second half of the Decade for Action to Combat Racism and Racial Discrimination. On that same occasion, the General Assembly decided that a week of solidarity with people struggling against racism and racial discrimination, beginning on March 21st, would be organized annually.

Canadian anti-racism and human rights organizations mark this day every year by holding events that highlight the struggle to overcome racial discrimination, and issue calls for action to fight hate and racism at a government and societal level.  This year Canadian human rights and anti-racism voices came together at a media conference in Ottawa on March 21st to call out racism in Canada’s domestic and foreign policy, as well as admonish the Canadian and provincial governments for their very weak responses to fighting the spread of hate and white supremacy across the country.

The anti-racism activist group Canadians United Against Hate (CUAH) was joined by the Canadian Congress on Diversity, Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East and Independent Jewish Voices Canada to highlight the weak response of the Canadian government in the fight against racism and white supremacy.

CUAH released a statement which pointed out that racialized and minority communities were "sick and tired" of seeing racism and prejudice in government policies despite numerous statements by political leaders over the last several years that "racism has no place in Canada" (usually made in the aftermath of violent or deadly racist attacks).  The groups pointed out that such political platitudes are meaningless without decisive actions to fight racism, without leadership at the national level to implement a Canada-wide anti-hate strategy, and without actions to eliminate any hint of racism from within public and government institutions.

One example that was highlighted of the lack of government action in response to racism was when protesters occupied Ottawa for three weeks in February by the so-called “Freedom Protest”.  The lack of government and police response to the protest which led to the occupation was a demonstration of the seeming apathy of governments to deal in a decisive manner with racists and white supremacists.  The promoters and organizers of the protest had a history of publicly promoting racism, Islamophobia, anti-Semitism and incitements to racial violence.  They called for insurrection in their online manifesto, and white protesters paraded around with Nazi symbols, Confederate flags and hateful messaging without any opposition from protesters. 

There was much public reaction from representatives of racialized communities that had the protest been organized by Indigenous or Black people it is safe to say that the full force of the law would have come down on them very quickly, as has been the case in the past when people from these communities have organized protests.

Voices in the Jewish community also commented on the overt hate that was visible during the protest and commented on the lack of political leadership in response to the protest.  Rabbi David Mivasair, a member Independent Jewish Voices Canada, who was part of the media conference noted that to stand idly by when people espousing racial hatred take over our streets is a massive failure of political leadership.  In addition, it was noted that what was on display in Ottawa was the glaring disparity in police treatment of protests involving racialized communities and Indigenous people in Canada compared to how the primarily white Ottawa protesters were treated.

CUAH also pointed out the racism that was apparent when you compare Canada’s open arms and open door response to Ukrainian refugees fleeing Russian aggression to the government’s response last year to Canada’s Afghan allies who were fleeing the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan.  Add into the mix Canada’s very limited response to Russian destruction of entire towns in the Syrian War, resulting in 13.5 million Syrians being made refugees, Canada’s relative silence around the refugee and humanitarian crisis created by the Saudi war on Yemen, or this country’s lack of action to take in any of the 1.2 million survivors of the Rohingya genocide living in refugee camps in Bangladesh, and you get the sense that the Canadian government’s foreign policy approach is that white Christians matter more than people who are Brown and Muslim.

Speakers acknowledged that the war instigated by Russia against Ukraine was despicable and the treatment of Ukrainian refugees who aren’t white reveals the depth of racism and discrimination that racialized people continue to face.  Also noted was the fact that while nations around the world need to welcome Ukrainian refugees, these same nations must similarly open their arms to refugees from Africa, the Middle East and other parts of the world outside Europe with the same grace and support.

Nur Watad, speaking on behalf of Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East, stated that they wholeheartedly support Canada’s accepting attitude towards Ukrainian refugees. But she also questioned why Canada has not taken a similar approach towards other refugee populations in the past, whether from Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq or Palestine.  "Ukrainian refugees certainly deserve our heart-felt sympathy and support.  But surely our hearts are big enough to welcome any despairing asylum-seeker fleeing similar strife,” she said.

Speakers observed that as a nation founded on Indigenous genocide, slavery, and white supremacy, this history is part of the DNA of Canadian society and its major institutions.  They further commented that refusal by political leaders to acknowledge the fact that racism, white supremacy and white privilege are baked into Canadian society and institutions because of our history, reinforces those attitudes and tells racialized Canadians that they are lesser human beings.

The overall message delivered by all the speakers was that whether it is Canada’s foreign policy or domestic policy racialized Canadians are fed up and are demanding changes in the way things are done, and the inherent racist culture that creates them.  It is why the Canadian government needs to take a more aggressive approach to fighting racism within its corridors where policies are formulated, and why there needs to be aggressive action to fight the spread of white supremacy and hate in Canada. 

Because if not now, then when?  And if not, then why not?  Canadians will be watching, and will hold political leaders to account if they fail to address these critical issues that are affecting millions of lives in Canada and overseas.

© 2022 The View From Here.  © 2022 Fareed Khan.  All rights reserved.