Bills of Rights in Canada.

• Author: Bowal, Peter
• Position: Feature: Constitutions

When Canadians think of human rights law, the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and their provincial human rights Acts are most likely to come to mind. These are the best known and most important human rights instruments. But what is a Bill of Rights and how is that different from these other two human rights statutes with similar sounding names?

What's in a Name: Bill of Rights Versus Human Rights Act (or Code)?

In addition to the Canadian Bill of Rights (SC I960, c 44) and the Alberta Bill of Rights, (RSA 2000, c A-14) Canadian jurisdictions also enacted various human rights Acts (or Codes, which means the same thing). The federal Parliament also enacted a human rights Code and created a parallel enforcement Human Rights Commission in 1977 (Canadian Human Rights Act, RSC 1985 c H-6).

Ontario was the first province to consolidate its human rights legislation into a Human Rights Code (1962), which included provisions for the Code to be administered by a Commission (Human Rights Code, RSO 1990 c H.19). The other provinces and territories have also established human rights legislation and Human Rights Commissions to administratively enforce this law.

So today, the federal government and Alberta have both Bills of Rights and Human Rights Acts. Other provinces and territories have combined both Bill and Act provisions into a one-stop Human Rights Act (or Code).

What is the difference in nomenclature? A Bill of Rights normally contains only rights and freedoms extended or guaranteed by the Crown. These are the types of rights and freedoms that only the public authority can truly ensure, including the rights to liberty and to vote in elections, and the freedoms of religion, speech, assembly, association and the media. The Alberta Bill of Rights is reproduced in full below in the Appendix. It is brief and imposes limits on the Alberta legislature only.

Individuals do not have any obligations under a Bill of Rights--they only have rights. The emphasis in these Bills of Rights is human-ness, so corporations are unlikely to avail themselves of these rights (which is not the case under the Charter where the encompassing legal term "person" is used). Enforcement of Bill rights and freedoms is always against government which explains why court is where one obtains a remedy (eg. to strike down legislation). The Bill of Rights model is closely reflected in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms of 1982. The Canadian Charter of Rights is also exclusively concerned with government action.

A Human Rights Act, by contrast, generally confers the one major right of equality (or non-discrimination) and extends this particular right completely through to the private sector...