Canadian Bill of Rights - Features

Features

The Canadian Bill of Rights protects numerous rights, most of which were later included in the Charter. Examples include:

• Freedom of speech in Canada and freedom of religion in Canada (now in Section 2 of the Charter)
• Limited equality rights (more complete rights are contained in Section 15 of the Charter)
• The right to life, liberty and security of the person, and in another section, rights to fundamental justice (the Charter combines those rights in Section 7)
• The right to enjoyment of property, which is not enshrined in the Charter
• The right to counsel (now in Section 10 of the Charter).

Section 2 of the Bill of Rights begins as follows:

2 Every law of Canada shall, unless it is expressly declared by an Act of the Parliament of Canada that it shall operate notwithstanding the Canadian Bill of Rights, be so construed and applied as not to abrogate, abridge or infringe or to authorize the abrogation, abridgment or infringement of any of the rights or freedoms herein recognized and declared...

The notwithstanding wording of Section 2 is a precursor to the notwithstanding clause of the Charter.

While the Bill of Rights is considered only quasi-constitutional because it was enacted as an ordinary Act of the Parliament of Canada, it contains a unique provision that is often forgotten by many who dismiss the importance of the document. This section reads as follows:

3. (1) Subject to subsection (2), the Minister of Justice shall, in accordance with such regulations as may be prescribed by the Governor in Council, examine every regulation transmitted to the Clerk of the Privy Council for registration pursuant to the Statutory Instruments Act and every Bill introduced in or presented to the House of Commons by a Minister of the Crown, in order to ascertain whether any of the provisions thereof are inconsistent with the purposes and provisions of this Part and he shall report any such inconsistency to the House of Commons at the first convenient opportunity.

(2) A regulation need not be examined in accordance with subsection (1) if prior to being made it was examined as a proposed regulation in accordance with section 3 of the Statutory Instruments Act to ensure that it was not inconsistent with the purposes and provisions of this Part.