Well, the most viable and recognized part of the Canadian Constitution, the Charter of Rights and Freedom guarantees the rights of individuals by enshrining those rights and certain limits on them in the highest law of land. In fact, it’s enactment in 1982; the Canadian charter procedure has created a social and legal revolution. The procedure involves expanding the rights of minorities, transforming the nature of criminal investigations and prosecutions, and subjecting the will of Parliament and the legislatures to judicial scrutiny.

Prior to the inception of charters, rights and freedoms were protected in Canada by a variety of laws involving the 1960 Bill of Rights. Make a note; none of these laws were part of the constitution which makes them lack the supremacy and permanence of the Charter. And The Bill of Rights was only applied to federal, rather than provincial laws.

The government decided to include a new Charter of Rights and Freedoms within the constitution in the early 1980s. Charter contain a clause allowing parliament or any provincial legislature to exempt their laws from certain sections in the Charter (on fundamental rights, equality rights and legal rights), for a period of five years. And the "notwithstanding clause," as Section 33 of the Charter is known has been used only a handful of times by various provinces to violate Charter rights most notably by Quebec to create laws limiting the use of English signage, and by Alberta against the issue of samemarriage. Well, the clause is available to governments but it’s rarely being used.

It is to note that the Charter protects Canadians against the state, and protects minorities against parliamentary majorities. Great news is that it applies to anyone in Canada, citizen or newcomer but some of its rights apply only to citizens, including the right to vote and the right to enter and leave the country. Not to forget, its language is more general than specific because of which critics fear it gives too much interpretive power to judges.

Specifically, the principal rights and freedoms it covers include freedom of expression, the right to a democratic government, the right to live and seek work anywhere in Canada, the legal rights of people accused of crimes, Aboriginal peoples' rights, the right to equality including gender equality, the right to use Canada's official languages, and the right of French or English minorities to an education in their language.

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