Help Save Our Charter

The fundamental rights and freedoms guaranteed to everybody in Canada through the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms are crucial to a free and democratic society. Some of these rights are so present in our daily lives that we might exercise them without even realizing it. They allow us to speak up about issues we care about, to peacefully protest for our vision of a better world, to exercise our religion freely, and to collectively bargain for better working conditions.

Other fundamental rights are there to protect us when we are at our most vulnerable. They ensure that every individual is treated equally under the law. They protect our life, liberty and security. They ensure that we are not arbitrarily detained and that we are presumed innocent of an offence until proven guilty.

Shockingly, our provincial and federal governments can try to deprive us of the protection of these rights by using the notwithstanding clause – section 33 of the Charter. This clause allows governments to pass laws that do not comply with certain rights and freedoms protected by the Charter.

While governments have historically rarely used the notwithstanding clause, this is no longer the case. Recently, provincial governments have used or attempted to use the clause to:

• prevent education workers from striking;
• ban some provincial government employees from expressing their faith through the wearing of religious symbols;
• prevent non-French speakers from receiving services in other languages;
• reveal the identities of trans youth to their parents before they are ready to do so themselves.

These uses of the notwithstanding clause have already caused horrendous harms to marginalized and vulnerable groups. If nothing is done, this could very well be just a start. Governments could one day try to use the notwithstanding clause to ban speech critical of people in power or to imprison people without giving them a fair trial.

Now is the time to save our Charter. For years, CCLA has been challenging before the courts egregious uses of the notwithstanding clause, but there is something you can do, too. Sign this petition to join CCLA in calling on our governments to enact laws that will expressly limit how the notwithstanding clause can be used. Together, we can get governments to accept that this clause should only be used in extraordinary and justifiable circumstances – not to allow egregious rights violations or to weaken legal protections for marginalized and vulnerable groups.





Background Information:

Education Worker Strikes: In 2022, the Ontario government was in the middle of bargaining with an education workers union, CUPE, about contract terms. When the union notified them that they were going to go on strike, the government brought in the Keeping Students in Class Act to make that strike illegal and fine the union and any workers who went on strike. The Act invoked the notwithstanding clause. Many individuals, unions, and CCLA raised objections, and following a wave of popular discontent, the Ontario government repealed this controversial bill.

Religious Symbols: In 2019, the government of Quebec passed An Act Respecting the Laicity of the State, commonly known as Bill 21. The Act emphasized the laicity and secularism of the province of Quebec and prohibited specific listed government employees from wearing religious symbols while at work. When the notwithstanding clause expired after reaching its five-year sunset clause in 2024, the government of Quebec chose to pass legislation renewing the use of the clause for a further five years. CCLA is currently challenging the constitutionality of Bill 21 before the courts.

Non-French Speakers: In 2022, the government of Quebec amended the Charter of the French Language and included many changes aimed at promoting the use of the French language in the province. These changes further restricted who may receive government services in languages other than French and included a provision declaring that it operated notwithstanding sections 2 and 7 through 15 of the Charter.

Trans Youth: In 2023, the court determined that Saskatchewan's new policy that prevents trans and gender diverse students from using their chosen name or pronouns without parental permission might violate the Charter and that the policy should be put on hold until the court could determine its constitutionality because of the irreparable harms the policy causes trans and gender diverse students. In response, the Government of Saskatchewan enacted this policy into law, using the notwithstanding clause to have it operate despite sections 2, 7, and 15 of the Charter. CCLA is currently in court as an intervenor supporting the fight to declare that this law violates the Charter.