POL214Y5 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Negative And Positive Rights
Document Summary
Pol214 lecture 7: the charter of rights & freedoms. Types of actions or institutional arrangements that help protect us from unfair treatment or discrimination. Positive- state gives you something (second or third generation rights). Government won"t impede you from you saying something. Our charter has both negative and positive rights. British model: parliament had the authority and assumed that gov"t wouldn"t impose on people"s civil liberties. Their courts cannot review the legislation and say it needs to be changed. Bna act was more like the british system. Only applied to federal government and federal legislation. Province"s could still pass laws that infringed on civil liberties. It was not enshrined in the constitution; as a result, it could be amended very easily. War measures act allowed the suspension of civil liberties during war. Charter is about individual rights, not group rights. Charter as a group symbol and will allow people to deal with the federal government instead of the provincial gov"ts.
