POLS 317 Lecture Notes - Section 33 Of The Canadian Charter Of Rights And Freedoms, Seditious Libel, Victoria Charter

• School: Queen's University
• Department: Political Studies
• Course: POLS 317
• Professor: Janet Hiebert

Document Summary

Creation of the charter was radical and controversial within canada: some viewed it as undemocratic, rights are not absolute, there is a limitation clause, notwithstanding clause. Potentially allows ottawa or the provinces to set aside a judicial ruling. The term rights is fairly young, the idea of rights as normative constraints on states. If everything was a right, rights would collide: necessary to be reasonable in rights, and limit them to the essential. Most disagreements are resolved through (political) processes, majoritarian processes. Difference between using rights to make the state stop something and asking for them to do so: distinct rights claims and claims for wants. Language of rights: natural law/rights the idea that individuals are able to make certain claims on the basis of human nature, but for which there is no remedy within civil society. There is nor remedy for your natural right being violated. For many this was odd and obscure.