Of rights and responsibilities: the John Howard Society of Alberta.

• Date: 01 January 2009

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"With rights come responsibilities." It is likely that most Canadian citizens would wholeheartedly agree with this statement. We have many rights in a free and democratic society, but they are accompanied by the many responsibilities that we are obliged to fulfill in return for those rights. For example, we have a right to ownership of real and personal property, and the responsibility to not take the property of others. The majority (but not all) of our fundamental rights and freedoms are set out in The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms (Constitution Act 1982), while our responsibilities are set out in the hundreds of federal and provincial statutes and the common law. All of this forms the basis for "The Rule of Law" that is the foundation of our society. And, of course, there are our societal norms which, while not having the force of law, nonetheless guide how we conduct ourselves with each other in a civil society.

The English philosopher Thomas Hobbes, in his treatise Leviathan, published in 1651, was the first to describe the "social contract", the essence of which is that without society we would all live in a state of nature where we would each have unlimited natural freedoms. But the natural consequence of this is that we have the right to all things, and thus the freedom to harm anyone else to obtain or preserve what "is rightfully ours". There are no positive or community rights (there is no community), only the laws of nature leading to an endless "war of all against all." To avoid this state of affairs, each of us has implicitly agreed to a social contract. We give up certain rights and freedoms, and take on certain responsibilities, in return for which the state (the government) provides us the protections and other services that we deem necessary, not just for our survival, but also for our comfort.

The social contract is a philosophical construct--it does not actually exist as a written document. But it serves the useful purpose of helping to conceptualize the relationship between the state and its citizens, or more particularly, the basis for the legitimate exercise of authority by the state over its citizens. In return for the protection of certain rights and freedoms, the state has the authority to enforce compliance with responsibilities. Failure to comply with these responsibilities allows the state to take punitive measures.

It is a quid pro quo; rights and freedoms (and protection) in return for compliance with, or living up to, responsibilities. It seems to make perfect sense--you can't have one without the other.

The embodiment of the state is the people who form the government. In Canada today, for the most part, that is people who range in age from 40 years to 70 years. When they were children, the age of majority in Canada was 21...