Complexities of Liberalism in Practice

Chapter 11Social 30-1

Maher Arar

CBS News Interview with Arar

Read Page 368 Text

To what extent do you think the actions of the US and Syrian governments challenged individual or collective rights?

What role does Canada play in the Arar Affair?

Promoting Rights• Fundamental Rights: (necessary for an individual

to enjoy free will or personal autonomy)

o Life, Liberty, and Personal Safety

o Guaranteed in Legislations (entrenched):• Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms (1982)• Quebec Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms (1975)• Bill of Rights (1791)

RULE OF THUMB• NO INDIVIDUAL HAS THE RIGHT TO INFRINGE ON

THE RIGHTS OF OTHERS.

• INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS CAN AND MUST BE BALANCED IN THE INTERESTS OF PERSERVING THE RIGHTS OF EVERYONE IN THE COMMUNITY.

The most certain test by which we judge whether a country is really free is the amount of security enjoyed by minorities

-Lord Acton, 1877-

Do you agree? Why or why not?

Collective Rights in Canada

Modern liberalism can accommodate collective rights

Minority rights are protected

Supreme Court of Canadagives collective rights highpriority

4 organizing constitutional principles in Canada

Federalism

Democracy

Rule of Law

Respect for minorities

Primary difference between the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the American Bill of Rights is the inclusion of collective rights

Page 378 -379

CANADIAN CHARTER OF RIGHTS AND FREEDOMS, 1982The CCRF, 1982 contains the following:•Individual Rights•Collective Rights

• Language rights• Aboriginal rights• Multicultural character

of Canada

Pierre Elliott Trudeau

• His goal was to entrench rights

• He succeeded by having the CCRF, 1982 enshrined in the Constitutional Act

What does it mean to entrench rights?

What does it mean “to enshrine” in the Constitution?

Why Entrench Rights?•Protection ensures that rights legislation cannot be easily overturned without due process.

•Due Process consists of major debate in government, amendment formulas and public support; however, change is needed to keep up with the times.

• For example: Women’s Rights, Aboriginal Rights and African-American Rights

Collective Rights Come From The Extension of Individual Rights

Supreme Court of Canada extends rights

Government extends rights via the written constitution

Delwin Vriend Case 5 Page 371

Can no longer fire people based on their sexual orientation

Trudeau’s Omnibus Bill, 1968

Government could no longer morally intervene in divorce, homosexuality and abortion

LANGUAGE RIGHTS

ALBERTA•Alberta School Act, 1968

• Use of French as a language of instruction 50% of daily school time

• Extended to 80% in 1976• Applied to publicly funded

schools

CANADA•CCRF, 1982

• Sec 23 (1)(a)(b) instruction provided in minority language if:

• 1st language learned was French or English where they live, OR

• One has received primary education in English or French and the language is of the minority where one lives

Aboriginal RightsAboriginal rights are also protected

in the CCRF, 1982

Section 25 Section 26 Section 35

CCRF cannot be used to take away Aboriginal or Treaty rights

Rights granted cannot be used to deny other rights that exist in Canada

Existing Treaty & Aboriginal rights affirmedAboriginals include: Indian, Inuit and MétisInclude rights via land claims or those future acquiredGranted equality to males and females

Illiberal Practices

in Liberal

Democracies

Smoker’s Rights Denied

Anti-Smoking movement is promoting the exclusion of 5 million Canadians

which equals 20 % of the population.Should the government pass legislation to restrict the rights of individuals?

Disenfranchise

ment1. 1867 BNA Act, 1867 excluded women from voting

2. Until 1960 Natives and other non-whites were excluded from voting

3. During the 19th century, postmasters and postal employers in various provinces could not vote

4. 1917 to 1920 War Times Election Act – Italian, German and Ukrainian Canadians, along with Mennonites, Hutterites and Doukhobors who spoke an enemy language lost the right to vote

5. 1934 to 1955 – Doukhobors and others who refused to bear arms or conscientiously objected to military service lost the right to vote

Japanese Interment Camp Video

The War Measures Act • The War Measures Act – gave emergency powers

to the government when the existence of “war, invasion or insurrection, real or apprehended” was present.

• Used During:o WWIo WWIIo 1970 October Crisis

War Measures Act WWI

• Used from 1914 – 1918• Canadians with an ethnic background from Germany, Austria-

Hungary or the Ottoman Empire were declared “enemy aliens”• The Act limited:

o Freedom and privacy – “enemy aliens” had to register themselves and carry ID cards

o Censorship – could not publish or read anything except English and French

o Mobility – could not leave the country without permitso Private Property – could not own a firearms o Freedom of Association – could not join groups deemed

inappropriate, dangerous or seditiouso Faced deportation, internment camps, confiscation of property

NO apology was granted after WWI nor were people released from camps immediately. (2 years)

War Measures Act WWII

• Japanese Canadians were interned (22, 000 ppl)

• Most interned Japanese were native-born Canadians

• Military and RCMP dismissed public claims of the “Japanese danger” as inaccurate and based upon no evidence.

• Problem was the anti-Japanese public opinion

• 18-45 year old males were sent to work camps

• Women sent to the BC wilderness to live in communal buildings

Japanese Internment and Work Camps

WWII – WMA • Japanese faced poor living

conditions • Japanese property was seized and

sold without compensation• End of WWII, Japanese could either

be deported or move east of the Rockies as they were ban from BC

• 1949 – regain the right to go back to BC

• 1988 – PM Mulroney acknowledged unjust actions and $21,000 in compensation for those who could prove they were directly wronged.

Japanese Internment Camps

1970 October Crisis• FLQ – use of socialism, violence and

terrorism to reach their goals• James Cross and Pierre LaPorte kidnapped • LaPorte is assassinated Trudeau deemed

this “apprehended insurrection”• FLQ was outlawed• Canadians would be presumed a member if

one attended a meeting or spoke favourably of the FLQ.

Page 400

October Crisis• 500 people were arrested without warrants i.e.

teachers, artists, journalists, unionists – people who supported Quebec Nationalism

• Criticisms:o powers of government were too broad for 2 kidnappings and one

murdero Treated all separatists as terrorists

Post 9-11 Reactionism• Restrictions on Religious Symbols• US PATRIOT Act, 2001• No Fly List

Restriction on Religious Symbols• Began in the 1990s to secularize public

institutions i.e. limited prayer in Parliament

• Recently France implemented laws which were discriminatorily applied to the hijab (Muslim) and turbans (Sikh), yet yarmulkes (Jewish) and crosses (Christian) were allowed.

• Students wearing the hijab or turbans were expelled.

• Sikhs and Muslims sued the French government and were reinstated to school BUT the law remains.

• Belgium followed suit and no visible symbols of philosophical, religious, political or other opinions were to be worn by public servants when serving in public.

US PATRIOT ACT• What is it?

The Act dramatically reduced restrictions on law enforcement agencies' ability to search telephone, e-mail communications, medical, financial, and other records; eased restrictions on foreign intelligence gathering within the United States; expanded the Secretary of the Treasury’s authority to regulate financial transactions, particularly those involving foreign individuals and entities; and broadened the discretion of law enforcement and immigration authorities in detaining and deporting immigrants suspected of terrorism-related acts.

The act also expanded the definition of terrorism to include domestic terrorism, thus enlarging the number of activities to which the USA PATRIOT Act’s expanded law enforcement powers can be applied.

US PATRIOT ACT, 2001

• Why was the act needed?o “Need for the increased security to deter and punish terrorist acts in

the US and around the world” – US Government

Opposition to the Act?The Act was heavily challenged by groups that saw the law as a threat to personal liberties.

Student Voices

US PATRIOT ACT, 2001

• US Courts Ruled Against:1. National Security Letters – sensitive customer information from the

Internet providers and other businesses seized without a warrant.2. Gag Provision – censorship of protestors who opposed the Patriot Act

Reality of the Act is that it has been used to target minority groups such as Muslims and Arabs.

No Fly Lists

• Transport Canada’s Specified Person List - someone “potentially posing an immediate threat to aviation security”o If on the list you may not allowed on domestic flights in Canada

• Criticisms:o You are NOT told you are on the listo Potential racial profilingo Denies legal rights “ innocent until proven guilty”

and you cannot challenge your inclusion on a listExample: Maher Arar