Transcript What Are We Learning Today?

The Charter of Rights
and Freedoms is part
of Canada’s
___________. The
___________ sets out
the framework for
how Canada is to be
__________.
 The constitution is the
________ law in
Canada. All other
laws must be
consistent with it.

With the Charter, Canadians can challenge in
court laws that _______ their rights. The judicial
branch makes decisions about these
challenges by __________ how to apply the
Charter. It strikes down laws the restrict rights
in an unjustified way.
 The Charter says that Canada’s gov’t is
________ in restricting rights, if the restrictions
are necessary to maintain Canada as a _____
and ___________ society.
 Why might Canadians have different views
about what restrictions are justified?

The following list describes your individual
rights and freedoms under the Charter:
Freedoms (basic
freedoms)
The freedom to express your opinions.
 The freedom to choose your religion.
 The freedom to organize peaceful meetings
and demonstrations.
 The freedom to associate with any person or
group.

The right to vote for members of the House of
Commons and of provincial legislatures.
 The right to vote for a new gov’t at least every
5 years.

________ Rights (moving around)
The right to move anywhere within Canada
and to earn a living there.
 The right to enter, stay in, or leave Canada.

The right to be free of imprisonment, search
and seizure without reasons backed by law
and evidence.
 The right to a fair and quick public trial by an
impartial (non-biased) court that assumes
that your are innocent until proven guilty.

________ Rights (everyone being
equal)

The right to be free of discrimination because
of race, national or ethnic origin, religion,
gender, age, or mental or physical disability.

With two exceptions, the Charter of Rights
and Freedoms gives every person in Canada
the same rights, whether or not they are
citizens. The exceptions are the right to vote
and the right to leave and enter Canada
freely. Only Canadian citizens have these
rights.
What does interment mean?
 Internment means “imprisonment” or
“captivity.”
 At the beginning of WW I in 1914, more than
8000 people of Ukrainian and German
descent were arrested and sent to camps
because of their identity.
 This is because Canada and its allies were at
war with Germany and Austria-Hungary and
part of Ukraine fell within enemy territory.

Canada’s gov’t made the arrests under the War
Measures Act, which it passed in 1914 at the
outbreak of the war.
 In many cases, the gov’t seized the homes and
possessions of those arrested. Many were men,
but their families often went to the camps
because they had no other choice. The people
interned had to work as labourers – they built
roads, for example. They did not receive any
wages. After the war ended and the War
Measures Act was no longer in force, the gov’t
required many ppl to remain in the camps and
continue to work as labourers without pay.

During WW II, Canada used the War Measures
Act to arrest ppl of Italian descent and send
them to camps. The arrests began on June
10, 1940, when Italy declared war on
Canada.
 The arrests focused mainly on men, but some
families had to follow the men to the camps.
The gov’t seized the property of some of
those arrested (about 700 ppl).

On December 7, 1941, during WW II, Japan
attacked Pearl Harbour. Canadians with
Japanese ancestry suddenly found themselves
treated with suspicion or even hatred, even
though most of them had been born and raised
in Canada.
 In February 1942, Canada’s gov’t decided to
move all ppl of Japanese origin away from the
west coast. Under the War Measures Act, more
than 20 000 men, women, and children were
forced to leave their communities, brining only
what they could carry. They were loaded onto
trains and moved inland, most to remote
communities in B.C.’s interior. They were not


The gov’t promised
to safeguard the
property of
Japanese
Canadians, but in
1943 it sold off their
homes, businesses,
and possessions.
Families that had
spend decades
building a life in
Canada suddenly
had nothing.

In 1876, parliament passed the Indian Act. It
was passed without consulting First Nations
people, at a time when people of European
descent generally viewed European ways as
superior to the ways of other cultures. At
points in its history, the Indian Act:
› Required First Nations ppl to obtain gov’t
permission to wear traditional clothing.
› Banned some of their traditional
ceremonies.
› Prevented First Nations from taking political
action
For more than 50 years, until 1918, the Canada
Elections Act barred women from voting and
running as candidates in federal elections.
 Canadian women began to campaign for the
right to vote in 1876. Emily Howard Stowe,
Canada’s 1st female doctor, founded a club to
promote women’s suffrage (right to vote.) This
idea was so radical that it had a “cover” name:
the Toronto Women’s Literary Club.
 Over the next 4 decades, the fight for women’s
suffrage gradually gained momentum. Some
women in England even held large, angry rallies
for the cause, and were often imprisoned for
their views.

One thing that makes Canada unique is our
collective rights. Collective rights belong to
groups of ppl and are found in Canada’s
constitution.
 _________ rights: rights guaranteed to specific
groups in Canadian society for ________ and
________ reasons. These groups are: _________
peoples, including __________, ______, and
____ peoples; and _________ and
_____________.

Question
 What do Francophone (a person whose first
language is French) students in Alberta and
Anglophone (a person whose first language is
English) students in Quebec have in
common?
 See map pg. 142.
 Should a Francophone have any language
rights if they are living in Alberta?
Official ___________
 Sections of the Charter establish _______ and
_______ as ______ languages of Canada, and
the right of Canadian citizens to conduct their
________ with the federal gov’t in either official
language.
 These sections also establish New Brunswick as
an officially bilingual province.
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMEB7o
GFfkQ
________ language _________ rights
 Section ___ of the Charter says that a Frenchspeaking or English-speaking ________
__________ of sufficient size in any province
has the right to _________ funded (paid for by
taxes and provided by the gov’t) schools that
serve their language community.
 http://laws.justice.gc.ca/en/charter/1.html#a
nchorbo-ga:l_I-gb:s_16
Rights for Francophones and Anglophones
are part of what made Confederation, and
so Canada, possible.
 Under the _______ _______ _______ ____(BNA
Act) in 1867, Confederation established
Canada as a bicultural, _______ country with
rights for Francophones and Anglophones.

It made French and English official languages
of Canada’s parliament.
 It guaranteed public schools for the
Protestant minority in Quebec and the
Catholic minorities in rest of the Canada.

Canada = Ontario,
Quebec, New
Brunswick & Nova
Scotia ONLY!!!
Protestants = most
English speakers
Catholics = most
French speakers

http://education.alberta.ca/apps/schauth/looku
p.asp?type=francophone
In 1977, Quebec’s gov’t passed the Charter
of the French Language, or Bill 101. This
Quebec law sets down rules for protecting
and promoting the use of the French
Language in Quebec. It states these reasons:
 French-speaking ppl are a distinct ppl and
French is the language that expresses their
identity.
 The ppl of Quebec want to make French the
language of gov’t and the everyday
language of work, education, and business.
(Homework)
Before Charter
Rule: Commercial signs may use only French.
After Charter
Supreme Court Decision (1988): The law can
require signs to use French, but cannot
prohibit the use of English in addition. The law
can require French to be more prominent
than English.
Before Charter
Rule: Francophones and immigrants in Quebec
must attend Francophone schools.
After Charter
Supreme Court Decision (2005): Francophone
parents do not have a right to educate their
children in Anglophone schools in Quebec, since
this violates the intent of section 23 to protect
Francophone identity as a minority culture in
Canada. Immigrant parents have this right, if
their children have already received some
education in English.
The Metis are 1 of Canada’s Aboriginal
peoples under section 35 of Canada’s
constitution. Unlike First Nations, the Métis do
not have any historic treaties with Canada’s
gov’t.
 As an Aboriginal people of Canada, the Metis
consider rights to land, and right to use the
land in traditional ways, as inherent rights
(rights they think they should have because
they are First Nations.)

Alberta’s gov’t passed the Metis
Population Betterment Act in 1938, which
established 12 temporary Metis
settlements. This was the 1st time in
Canada’s history that a gov’t had
provided the Metis with land.
 The temporary settlements did not give
the Metis control of the land.

When Canada’s constitution was finally
changed in 1982, it included section 35,
which finally recognized the Metis as 1 of
Canada’s Aboriginal peoples with rights.
 In 1990, Alberta’s gov’t passed legislation
under which the Metis received the Metis
settlements as a permanent land base with
the right to manage their own affairs.
 In addition, an agreement with Alberta’s
gov’t established the right of the Metis to
participate in the development of oil and
gas resources on their land.
