In 1980, Canada and its provinces began procedural meetings to establish its Constitution which had been originally founded in Britain. Their desire was ultimately to establish a Charter of Rights and Freedoms to bring legislative independence and assure Canadians certain fundamental rights. An approval was requested from Britain and in return accepted. Queen Elizabeth II visited our beautiful country and signed the Canada Act on April 17, 1982, in Ottawa. This gave Canada control over its Constitution and guaranteed the rights and freedoms in the Charter as the supreme law of the nation[1]. Now, lets try to imagine if one of us Rogues was able to go back in time and we showed up at the Parliament in our nations capital on that day in 1982 to sign this declaration in the stead of the the Queen and our then Prime Minister. Let’s say we beat the signatories to the punch and signed the Charter of Rights and Freedom. How legitimate would this document be? My assumption is that our signature would mean very little to our left-wing neighbours and quite honestly, we’d probably see protests flaring up in the streets of Ottawa leading to the eventual burning of the Charter. Now, to be fair, they’d be correct in not accepting the authenticity of this signature. The point I’m trying to make is that the ones who signed the charter gave it its legitimacy. The document’s validity is based upon who is backing it up and the weight of their title. Nothing short of a high level bureaucrat, a prime minister or the Queen herself could have authenticated this document for it to be accepted as our national declaration of rights.
Continue reading “A Charter & A Prison Letter”