So the law can override it as they please? I prefer the US version that says "Congress shall make no law ..."
We're much more like the UK than the US in the function of government and the construction of laws, though Parliamentary Sovereignty is expressly subject to judicial review in Canada, something the UK is going to have to grapple with over the next decade now that they are no longer subject to the European Court of Human Rights.
The government can't just override the charter as they please using the language in the Guarantee. The charter allows for things like hate speech laws, but they have to fall under "reasonable limits", something the Supreme Court of Canada rules on all the time, nearly always in favour of citizens compared to the government. A recent example being medically assist death, where the Supreme Court ruled bans on assisted death violated the Charter.
The US is a free speech extremist country, but since even the US Supreme Court has ruled there are limits on speech (like threats) this isn't a night and day difference between our countries in my view. The US allows far more speech than Canada does, yet we rank higher on the press freedom index.
The thing that really lets the Charter down is section 33, the 'notwithstanding clause'. It allows the federal and provincial governments to pass laws overriding certain rights for a period of 5 years. The charter itself would likely never have come into being without it, but it does take some of the teeth away.
I’m shocked to hear this! I thought the UK was still very much subject to the European Court of Human Rights!
Jeez, it is hardly extreme. BTW, free speech does not include libel, slander, specific threats, or inciting riots.
> we rank higher on the press freedom index
Canada does? Based on what? Note that no matter how extremely negative the press was about Trump, never once did the government make any legal threats against them about it.
Reporters Without Borders maintains a press freedom index. Their justification is detailed here: https://rsf.org/en/index
Canada ranks 19, the US 42
I remember an interview with John Carreyrou, the French-American journalist who broke the Theranos scandal.
He said very clearly that if it had happened in France, no press outlet would have covered it.
Theranos had a board of trustees that included Henry Kissinger, a future secretary of defense, etc.
And the publisher of the, WSJ, Rupert Murdoch, had invested hundreds of millions.
I doubt it would have been published in the UK or Germany either.
