Attorney General Sean Fraser says Canada’s greatest threat may come from within, warning that governments could one day destroy Canadians’ rights through misuse of the Charter’s notwithstanding clause.Blacklock's Reporter says Fraser told reporters Canadians must be “very, very careful” to protect their freedoms, claiming that the erosion of constitutional rights could lead to “our future downfall as a nation.”“It’s not going to be at the hands of some despot on the other side of the world,” said Fraser. “It’s going to be some future government who is empowered by an erosion of our rights today.” He added that if Canadians lose their freedoms “bit by bit,” they will have “no one but ourselves to blame.”Section 33 of the Charter allows Parliament or a provincial legislature to pass laws “notwithstanding” certain Charter protections for up to five years. Several provinces have used it in recent years..Saskatchewan invoked the clause in 2023 to pass a law requiring schools to obtain parental consent before recognizing a student’s preferred name or gender identity. Québec relied on it to defend its secularism law banning public employees from wearing religious symbols while on duty. Ontario used it to enforce limits on third-party political advertising before elections.Fraser argued the clause was never intended to give governments a blank cheque to override rights. “The notwithstanding clause does not permit any level of government, provincial or federal, present or future, to silence the courts when the rights in fact are violated by a law,” he said.He warned that the independence of courts and democratic institutions is being strained both in Canada and abroad, though he offered no Canadian examples.“In Canada and around the world, democracies are increasingly under strain,” said Fraser. “We are at a time right now where I’m seeing institutions more broadly being strained.”
