In reality, Chretien should be worried that the charter is under attack these days from progressive politicians on his side of the aisle.
In the Alberta election right now, Progressive Conservative Leader Alison Redford, more of a progressive liberal than a conservative, is running around her province telling everyone she’s worried that her opponent supports “conscience rights.” Redford says this could mean some doctors could refuse to perform abortions if it goes against their personal moral code, or a pharmacist could refuse to dispense the morning-after pill, which many feel causes abortion.
“I was very frightened to hear the discussion today, and I’ve been quite frightened to hear the development of that in the last month,” Redford said in early April.
What Redford isn’t saying, and too many journalists covering her fail to mention, is that conscience rights are a central part of Canada’s charter. In fact, it is the first fundamental freedom that the government is supposed to protect.
Section 2 of the charter reads, “2. Everyone has the following fundamental freedoms:
(a) freedom of conscience and religion.”
That’s pretty clear.
The Charter of Rights and Freedoms is supposed to protect individuals and their rights from government and its seemingly unlimited power. Yet Redford believes the government’s role should include being able to force someone to act against their own conscience, their most deeply held beliefs.
Redford, a supposed human rights lawyer, knows this but would rather play politics. This isn’t surprising really. Just before the election was called, her government introduced a new education act that would have required all schools, including private and religious schools and even homeschooling families, to not teach anything that would go against her Alberta Human Rights Act, a document that turns the very notion of human rights on its head.
Parents cried out, citing again section 2(a) of the charter and the fundamental freedom of conscience and religion, but Redford’s government was definitive.
“Whatever the nature of schooling — homeschool, private school, Catholic school — we do not tolerate disrespect for differences,” said Donna McColl, a spokesman for Education Minister Thomas Lukaszuk.
In Ontario’s legislature, while speaking to a bill on bullying in schools, Liberal cabinet minister Glen Murray read from the Catholic catechism and the Catholic church’s teaching that homosexual acts are “intrinsically disordered.” Murray then announced that this was no longer allowed. “I have to say to the bishops: ‘You’re not allowed to do that anymore,’ ” Murray told his fellow MPPs.
You don’t have to be Catholic or even agree with their stance on homosexuality to know that having a government minister try to rewrite the doctrines of any religious group is wrong and an attack on the charter values Murray and so many Liberals claim they uphold.
But again, we shouldn’t be surprised. This is a government that backed the idea that school officials are “co-parents,” so having the government as “co-pastor” and dictating religious belief isn’t that much of a stretch.
Jean Chretien might be celebrating 30 years of the charter next week, but his fellow travellers are doing a hat dance on the values they claim to hold dear.
Original Article
Source: toronto sun
Author: Brian Lilley
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