This year marks the 35th anniversary of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms a document we Canadians should be proud of and should be happy to celebrate. This blog will give you one reason why you should actually care about the Charter and be happy to celebrate it.

If you in any way are interested in comparative law, you will realize that despite the differences between countries in terms of culture and language, their laws are actually rather similar: in almost every country, you will find property laws, family laws, laws that protect contracts or laws that protect your assets or your land. There are even laws in almost every country in the world that protect your property and your right to property even after you die. And although these various laws and the rights that they protect are certainly important and deserving of protection at law, they are, however, meaningless and devoid of value if your most fundamental rights as human beings are not recognized. Fundamental rights are rights such as the right to life, liberty and security of the person, freedom of expression and religion and other such rights.

Think about this for a moment: what is the point of defending or protecting your land, or your right to land or in a contract if you do not have the right to life or if you do not have the right to liberty or the security of your person. What is the point of all these property and contract laws if you, as a human being, are not protected and your fundamental rights are not guaranteed?

Yet not many countries have laws that recognize those fundamental human rights and countries that do have such laws do not necessarily enforce them. But in Canada, not only do we recognize  fundamental human rights, we also acknowledge that they are supreme and we do so by giving them the utmost respect and privilege by enshrining them in our Constitution in the text of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

For this reason, we should be proud to have a Charter of rights and we should celebrate it every year.