Canadian Bill of Rights, Prime Minister John DIEFENBAKER's pathbreaking 1960 HUMAN RIGHTS charter, applied only to federal law because the requisite provincial consent was not obtained. It recognizes the rights of individuals to life, liberty, personal security and enjoyment (not "possession," which is provincial) of property. Deprivation of these is forbidden "except by due process of law." It protects rights to equality before the law and ensures protection of the law; protects the freedoms of religion, speech, assembly and association, and the press; and legal rights such as the rights to counsel and "fair hearing." 

Laws are to be construed and applied so as not to detract from these rights and freedoms. One of the bill's weaknesses was that many judges regarded it as a mere interpretative aid. Section 2 provides that Parliament can override the mentioned rights by inserting a "notwithstanding" clause in the applicable statute; this has been done only once, during the 1970 OCTOBER CRISIS. To the extent that it is not superseded by the 1982 CANADIAN CHARTER OF RIGHTS AND FREEDOMS, the bill remains in effect.

AUTHOR: W.H. MCCONNELL