How do you fundamentally transform a nation? If you don’t like your country as it is, how can you reshape it into something more to your liking?Perhaps the simplest way to change a country peacefully is to change its constitution. The constitution is the foundational document that essentially establishes a country by formulating the structure of its government and listing the rights and responsibilities of its citizens.When you change the constitution, you change the country.This is something Pierre Trudeau understood well. He didn’t like Canada as it was and set out to change it.Changing a country is a very difficult business and there are few people capable of pulling it off. But Pierre Trudeau was no average person. He was brilliant, articulate, hardworking, and determined.As justice minister in 1968, Pierre Trudeau first put forward his proposal for a constitutionally-entrenched charter of rights. It was published in book form by the federal government as A Canadian Charter of Human Rights.In this document, Trudeau argued that without constitutional entrenchment there was no “guarantee” to protect Canadians’ rights. He wrote that “no Canadian has the benefit of a constitutional protection as exists in dozens of other countries.”This was technically true because some other countries did have constitutional bills of rights. But realistically, whether one looks at the situation in 1968 or the years prior, the citizens of very few countries enjoyed the same degree of rights as Canadians had. Trudeau’s argument was more catering to fears than expressing the reality of Canada’s political experience.Nevertheless, Trudeau’s proposal was an easy sell to many citizens: Don’t you want your rights to be constitutionally protected? Who would answer, “no”? Of course, people want their rights to be constitutionally protected. But Canadians’ rights were constitutionally protected, just not in the explicitly enumerated way other countries did so, such as in the United States with its Bill of Rights.Anyway, Trudeau’s sales pitch worked and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms was formally adopted in 1982. The Charter was added to the constitution, but the federal and provincial governments were given three years to revise their laws in conformity to it before the equality rights section came into effect in 1985.When 1985 came around, the federal justice minister was John Crosbie. With the equality rights provisions about to take effect, Crosbie said, “The public does not realize that we already have had a revolution in Canadian society. The adoption of a charter was a revolution. It has changed the whole power structure of Canadian society. It has taken tremendous power from governments and given it to the courts of Canada, the Supreme Court of Canada, which is not widely realized. . . . Therefore, we are in a whole new legal environment in Canada. There has been a revolutionary change.”A revolution? Who had told us “the adoption of a charter was a revolution”? Certainly not Pierre Trudeau.But a revolution it was. Over the next few years the Lord’s Day Act was struck down, all legal restrictions on abortion were struck down, prayer was removed from public schools, and Canada’s traditional definition of marriage was struck down, all as a direct result of the Charter. There were other major changes as well, but you get the idea.Canadians were told the Charter would protect them from the government. But what the Charter delivered instead was a fundamental restructuring of their country — “a revolutionary change” as Justice Minister Crosbie had called it.Dr. William Gairdner wrote in his 1994 book, Constitutional Crack-Up, that the Charter of Rights “was a document that formalized and entrenched not only a set of rights, but indeed an entire State enterprise for the reshaping of Canada.”He went on to explain that Pierre Trudeau viewed the constitution “as a means to the achievement of some ideal State, an instrument for forcing society into a predetermined social and political mould.” (emphasis in the original.)Indeed, this is exactly what Pierre Trudeau achieved. With his so-called Charter of Rights, he essentially re-founded Canada as a different country, one that fit his ideological program. Each and every day, courts across Canada enforce Trudeau’s vision of Canada using his Charter of Rights.In this sense, Pierre Trudeau rules Canada from the grave. He is dead but not gone. His ideology continues to shape our country and will continue to do so thanks to the Charter.
How do you fundamentally transform a nation? If you don’t like your country as it is, how can you reshape it into something more to your liking?Perhaps the simplest way to change a country peacefully is to change its constitution. The constitution is the foundational document that essentially establishes a country by formulating the structure of its government and listing the rights and responsibilities of its citizens.When you change the constitution, you change the country.This is something Pierre Trudeau understood well. He didn’t like Canada as it was and set out to change it.Changing a country is a very difficult business and there are few people capable of pulling it off. But Pierre Trudeau was no average person. He was brilliant, articulate, hardworking, and determined.As justice minister in 1968, Pierre Trudeau first put forward his proposal for a constitutionally-entrenched charter of rights. It was published in book form by the federal government as A Canadian Charter of Human Rights.In this document, Trudeau argued that without constitutional entrenchment there was no “guarantee” to protect Canadians’ rights. He wrote that “no Canadian has the benefit of a constitutional protection as exists in dozens of other countries.”This was technically true because some other countries did have constitutional bills of rights. But realistically, whether one looks at the situation in 1968 or the years prior, the citizens of very few countries enjoyed the same degree of rights as Canadians had. Trudeau’s argument was more catering to fears than expressing the reality of Canada’s political experience.Nevertheless, Trudeau’s proposal was an easy sell to many citizens: Don’t you want your rights to be constitutionally protected? Who would answer, “no”? Of course, people want their rights to be constitutionally protected. But Canadians’ rights were constitutionally protected, just not in the explicitly enumerated way other countries did so, such as in the United States with its Bill of Rights.Anyway, Trudeau’s sales pitch worked and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms was formally adopted in 1982. The Charter was added to the constitution, but the federal and provincial governments were given three years to revise their laws in conformity to it before the equality rights section came into effect in 1985.When 1985 came around, the federal justice minister was John Crosbie. With the equality rights provisions about to take effect, Crosbie said, “The public does not realize that we already have had a revolution in Canadian society. The adoption of a charter was a revolution. It has changed the whole power structure of Canadian society. It has taken tremendous power from governments and given it to the courts of Canada, the Supreme Court of Canada, which is not widely realized. . . . Therefore, we are in a whole new legal environment in Canada. There has been a revolutionary change.”A revolution? Who had told us “the adoption of a charter was a revolution”? Certainly not Pierre Trudeau.But a revolution it was. Over the next few years the Lord’s Day Act was struck down, all legal restrictions on abortion were struck down, prayer was removed from public schools, and Canada’s traditional definition of marriage was struck down, all as a direct result of the Charter. There were other major changes as well, but you get the idea.Canadians were told the Charter would protect them from the government. But what the Charter delivered instead was a fundamental restructuring of their country — “a revolutionary change” as Justice Minister Crosbie had called it.Dr. William Gairdner wrote in his 1994 book, Constitutional Crack-Up, that the Charter of Rights “was a document that formalized and entrenched not only a set of rights, but indeed an entire State enterprise for the reshaping of Canada.”He went on to explain that Pierre Trudeau viewed the constitution “as a means to the achievement of some ideal State, an instrument for forcing society into a predetermined social and political mould.” (emphasis in the original.)Indeed, this is exactly what Pierre Trudeau achieved. With his so-called Charter of Rights, he essentially re-founded Canada as a different country, one that fit his ideological program. Each and every day, courts across Canada enforce Trudeau’s vision of Canada using his Charter of Rights.In this sense, Pierre Trudeau rules Canada from the grave. He is dead but not gone. His ideology continues to shape our country and will continue to do so thanks to the Charter.
