One of the most misinterpreted aspects of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms is the freedom of expression. Group organizations have misused this much too often. In the past, many extremist groups have misused this right to protect themselves. A great example is the Westboro Baptist Church. This church is one of the many groups across North America that uses the Charter to protect themselves. The Charter protects them even though their actions and messages are harmful and not beneficial to society. If the Charter was to recognize these groups as dangerous, they wouldn’t have the chance to misuse these freedoms. Also, the fact that if a Canadian citizen were to use the excuse of the freedom of expression to defend their actions, they wouldn’t …show more content…
There are many groups that hide behind religion in order to get these benefits. Scientology is one group that refers to themselves as a “New Religion.” They protect themselves with this right in order to get away with their actions. There have been many reports accusing Scientology of exploiting members physically and financially. They get away with these illegal activities by lying. Lying is something that the founder of Scientology, L. Ron Hubbard, has presented as acceptable in the religion, which isn’t tolerated in many real religions. However, if the Charter was to address groups like Scientology with more severity, they would not be able to hide anymore. No longer would they get away with their crimes, but these groups, and so-called religions, will actually face the consequences. In addition, freedom of religion is misused when these groups go against their religion. This refers to religious movements that state they are preaching a religion. In reality, they are going against the basic principles of that religion to do what they feel is right. For instance, many cults like the KKK are based off Christianity, but they don’t follow Christian principles. They do this so that they can have the benefits of being a non-profit religious group, like tax exemptions, but then take advantage of this label to perform hate crimes and get away with them. For this reason, it is …show more content…
In Canada, the right to equality has allowed citizens of all genders, races and sexual orientations to be treated as equals. This is something that groups do not realize. Members of organizations are subject to violence and abuse by higher powers. Groups like Scientology have been reported for putting kids to heavy labour. Also, members have been financially exploited in order for the church to make money. Furthermore, conditions for families separated within the church seem to be much worse. Once again, Scientology has gotten away with their crimes. Not only are they breaking an aspect of the Charter, but they are also performing illegal activities like abuse and assault. If this was an ordinary Canadian citizen, he or she would have been arrested and imprisoned. This does not apply to these groups because the Charter addresses them with too much lenience, which is an issue that needs to be fixed. Comparatively, women in cults are not treated pleasantly either. The government has received many reports of women who have faced physical, psychological, spiritual and sexual abuse during rituals. These groups can get away with horrible acts of crime just by being a non-profit organization. On the contrary, a normal citizen would have to face the consequences for doing the same crime. This is not equality at all! This goes for these groups and even the government. In addition, it is unfair as to why these
Although the U. S. S. Constitution was originally built as a defense against pirates during the Barbary War, it is most famous for the three major battles that it won during the War of 1812. The first of these battles, which was fought against the British H. M. S. Guerriere, was where the Constitution earned the nickname “Old Ironsides.” The second battle was against the H. M. S. Java, a merchant ship bound for India. In the third battle, the Constitution contended with both the H. M. S. Cyane and the H. M. S Levant. All of these victories are owed, at least in part, to the ingenious manner in which Old Ironsides was built. The building style of the U. S. S. Constitution gave it significant advantages over the English frigates during the War of 1812 that enabled it to emerge victorious from decisive naval battles against such ships as the H. M. S. Guerriere and H. M. S. Java.
It’s not unknown that The Church of Scientology has been a contentious subject of conversation for decades. The controversial religion was originally discovered by a gentleman named L. Ron Hubbard in 1954 through the establishment of ideas in which he believed would act as an antidote to mental health concerns called Dianetics. After an unsuccessful attempt resulting in bankruptcy, Hubbard branched his ideas into the basis of a new found religion called Scientology ("The Beliefs and Teachings of Scientology”). To Hubbard’s advantage, Scientology expeditiously accelerated in growth, becoming one of the fastest expanding religions in the 20th century. Scientology pledged a “light at the end of the tunnel” to those wandering through dark times, and created a pathway to a faultless understanding of one’s true spiritual fulfillment through a system of self-knowledge in relation to one’s own life, community, and mankind. Due to the Scientology’s controversial beliefs, abnormal practices, and aberrant church-member relationships, the religion poses as a superlative model of church rebelling against society’s social norms.
The “Sons of Freedom” are a small radical group that diverged from a religious sect known as the Doukhobors. This zealous and revivalist subsect evolved from the Doukhobors only to gain the government’s attention for their extremely radical acts. They have initiated bombings, arson, nudist parades, and hunger strikes, all in protest to the land ownership and registration laws of Canada. Such obscene and violent demonstrations have caused a great deal of conflict between the Sons of Freedom and the Canadian government’s legal system and have also generated much public resentment. However, should the State of Canada have imposed laws upon this minority group that blatantly conflicted with their religious beliefs?
With the government’s public service force not being allowed to wear religious clothing, this right is being compromised. Workers who do wear religious clothing were being stripped of their freedom to practise their religion, and the PQ is thus in violation of another section of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Additionally, section 2 clause (b) presents the freedom of thought, belief, opinion, and expression. This too is being dishonoured, as religious clothing is a form of expression of one’s beliefs, and the government was looking past this. While some may argue that Section 1 of the Charter declares that the Rights and Freedoms are set out with “reasonable limits” there is little reason in the argument presented by the PQ. These reasonable limits are why general public decency and dress codes are permitted, however, there is no reason to limit the wearing of religious
The first part of the second article of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedom, one of the 1982’s Constitutional Acts, states that everyone has the fundamental right to “freedom of conscience and religion” (“Constitution Act, 1982”, part 1). However, the line separating individual religious rights from the State’s religious neutrality is a subject of debate in Quebec. On October 18, 2017, the Quebec Liberal government introduced Bill 62 that aims at conserving Quebec’s religious neutrality, but also requires individuals to remove face-covering veils while giving or receiving public services (Bill 62, ch. III div. II). It is however unethical for Quebec’s government to impose a restriction on certain Muslim women’s religious and
Within Liberalism the government works towards making the world we live in more inviolable for the better of society and a more liberal democracy. Everyone also has there own rights and freedoms which are enhanced and protected by the government. Canada holds certain measures to keep Canada a strong democracy that acknowledges the rights of citizens. The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedom is one example, it assures rights and freedoms of Canadians. It gives us rights to act a certain way and also provides us with protection by the government and laws.
The Bill of Rights, written by James Madison in 1791, was a document to extend the rights of United States citizens. The Bill of Rights contains the first ten amendments of the United States Constitution. These ten amendments provided a backbone for the constitution and guaranteed the people certain individual rights. Each amendment protects a specific right and deals with a variety of issues. The second amendment states, “A well-regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed” (United States Constitution). This amendment is one that has dealt with many misunderstandings, miscommunications, and conflicts. Many of the disputes over the second amendment have been brought to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court is the highest law of the land, and it consists of nine justices. The Supreme Court always has the final say on whether an issue is constitutional or not. An example of one of the second amendment controversies is that of the District of Colombia v. Heller. Which was a case involving the second amendment that made it to the Supreme Court.
Since the creation of the constitution in 1789, people have found ways to disobey the laws written by our founding fathers. Most crimes have punishments that give fair consequences to the misconduct of the person, but some cases prove otherwise. The Bill of Rights were created to override all other law and provide a basis for moral wrongs and rights. Each amendment was written with a purpose to shape our country and give individual citizens the rights they believed were naturally theirs. One case, taken into the hands of the Supreme Court during World War I, caused an uproar of disagreement, to whether the case was decided unfairly. To this day, the case still remains arguable to whether this individual deserved the punishment that was given.
How would one feel if they were suddenly striped of all their rights and freedoms? As Canadians, one benefits from many rights and freedoms that many other people in the rest of the world do not enjoy. Although one does not pay close attention to any rights or regulations until they are impacted by them, everything lad out is still a part of our regular life. The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms defines Canada as a great nation, the right to vote; the freedom for thought, belief, opinion and expression; and the freedom of association are only some of the virtues that Canadians hold dear.
The Canadian Charter of Rights has been entrenched in the Constitution Act of 1982 since 1982 and affected the lives of countless Canadians ever since it was passed, with most if not all of the effects being positive. This can be proven by the fact that the act that the act has only faced two amendments in the 35 years it has been in effect. Furthermore, the Charter of Rights and Freedoms has five components; Fundamental Freedoms, Democratic Rights, Mobility Rights, Legal Rights, and Equality Rights. All of these were designed to make sure that Canadians face no discrimination, and are not denied any basic rights. This can be seen by seeing how much the quality of life for Canadians has increased over the time the Charter has been embedded in the Constitution, by how much the Charter actually does protect the rights of Canadians.
Many Canadians of the 21st century still often wonder, was the creation of the Charter of Rights & Freedoms a mistake? It is believed that the Charter 's creation was a significant benefit as it guarantees certain political rights to Canadian citizens and civil rights of everyone in Canada from the policies and actions of all areas and levels of government. However, many believe the Charter makes Canada more like the United States, especially by serving corporate rights and individual rights rather than group rights and social rights. Also, there are several rights that should be included in the Charter, such as a right to health care and a basic right to free education. With this, by guaranteeing certain political rights and civil rights to every Canadian citizen, it is evident that the creation of the Charter of Rights & Freedoms was not a mistake, and was truly a benefit to all Canadian citizens for many important reasons. One important reason is that Charter guarantees all Canadians their legal rights as it promises rights of people in dealing with the justice system and law enforcement are protected. In addition with the guarantee of Canadians legal rights, is their language rights which is to assure people have the right to use either the English or French language in communications with Canada 's federal government and certain provincial governments. As well as guaranteeing all Canadian 's equality rights to promise equal treatment before and under the law. The
The Charter of Rights and Freedoms is a bill of rights granted constitutional status that was introduced in the Constitution Act of 1982 by Prime Minister Pierre Elliot Trudeau. The Constitution Act is also known as the repatriation of the Canadian Constitution. The Charter had several purposes; the first is “to outline and guarantee the political rights of Canadian citizens, as well as the civil rights of anyone who is residing on the territory of Canada” (The Canadian Charter. 1). Secondly, “It balances the rights of legislatures and courts through the ‘notwithstanding’ clause, which gives the federal and provincial parliaments limited powers to override court decisions “, while section 2 of the bill enshrines the freedom of the press, allowing the media to release controversial reports without fear of the state (Ibbitson. 2012). thirdly, it criminalized discrimination in society, government rulings and the judicial system and provides a set of ethical principles for all Canadians to follow, while promoting equality throughout the country.
Beliefs held by Scientology have always been thought to be controversial and complicated. The most controversial beliefs being they expel members if they do not follow their moral code, belief of creation Scientology has, or how humans came to be, and the beliefs they have regarding the afterlife. If every religion was looked at under a microscope and scrutinized in the way Scientology always has been, there would be no followers to any religion whatsoever. Every religious community has practices they would rather they no longer preach, and dark parts of their history. Christianity has an entire old testament to the bible they want to be ignored, as well as having many Christian terrorism organizations who try to represent the worst scriptures in the
Religions can be labeled in by three basic aspects, creed, conduct, and community. Scientology is not an exception. Creed is the “written body of teachings of a religious group that are generally accepted by that group.” Conduct is “(behavioral attributes) the way a person behaves toward other people.” As a final point community is “a number of people consider themselves one group based on location, work, religion, nationality, or activity.” Scientology is a picture painted by these three
The Church of Scientology, founded in 1954, tested the limits of defining a religion. L. Ron Hubbard, a science fiction writer, founded the Church insisting that “The ultimate goal of Scientology is true spiritual enlightenment and freedom for all” (The Church of Scientology). His works seduced audiences by talking about the ability to achieve a perfect world. A world with the elimination of drugs, crime and angst. These ideals have attracted famous people like John Travolta and Tom Cruise. Scientology serves as a segway to this perfect free world. Hana Whitfield, a former Scientologist, claimed that Hubbard’s goal included “creating a religion where he could get income, but the government would not take it away