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Canadian citizens have rights and responsibilities. These come to us from our history, are secured by
Canadian law, and reflect our shared traditions, identity and values.
Canadian law has several sources, including laws passed by Parliament and the provincial legislatures,
English common law, the civil code of France and the unwritten constitution that we have inherited from
Great Britain.
Your Canadian Citizenship
Study Guide
Rights and Responsibilities
of Citizenship
8
Together, these secure for Canadians an 800-
year old tradition of ordered liberty, which dates
back to the signing of
Magna Carta
in 1215 in
England (also known as the Great Charter of
Freedoms), including:
• Freedom of conscience and religion;
• Freedom of thought, belief, opinion and
expression, including freedom of speech and
of the press;
• Freedom of peaceful assembly; and
• Freedom of association.
Habeas corpus
, the right to challenge unlawful
detention by the state, comes from English
common law.
The Constitution of Canada was amended in
1982 to entrench the
Canadian Charter of Rights
and Freedoms
, which begins with the words,
“Whereas Canada is founded upon principles
that recognize the supremacy of God and the rule
of law.” This phrase underlines the importance of
religious traditions to Canadian society and the
dignity and worth of the human person.
The Charter attempts to summarize fundamental
freedoms while also setting out additional rights.
The most important of these include:
• Mobility Rights — Canadians can live and
work anywhere they choose in Canada, enter
and leave the country freely, and apply for a
passport.
• Aboriginal Peoples’ Rights — The rights
guaranteed in the Charter will not adversely
affect any treaty or other rights or freedoms of
Aboriginal peoples.
• Official Language Rights and Minority
Language Educational Rights — French and
English have equal status in Parliament and
throughout the government.
• Multicultural ism — A fundamental
characteristic of the Canadian heritage and
identity. Canadians celebrate the gift of one
another’s presence and work hard to respect
pluralism and live in harmony.
Queen Elizabeth II
proclaiming the
amended Constitution,
Ottawa, 1982