Canada's Charter

The Christian Roots of Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms

by Max Nemni
Published: February 17, 2007

While nearly all Canadians agree that the repatriation of the Constitution 25 years ago, and the entrenching of a Charter of Rights and Freedoms in that Constitution, constitute the major achievements of Pierre Trudeau, they do not all agree that it was a good thing. Some see the Charter as the product of an excessive liberalism, overly stressing individual rights. Others view it as merely a way to enhance Canadian nationalism at the expense of Quebec's values.

For example Charles Taylor, the eminent McGill University professor, wrote in 1992 that the "Charter has created a foreign form of liberalism to which Quebec could never adapt." In 2005, Andre Burelle, Trudeau's former advisor and speechwriter from 1977 to 1984, wrote that the ultimate objective of the Charter was to please English Canadians. He explained that contrary to the Trudeau of the 1950s and 1960s, who fully lived the "personalist" ideals of great French Catholic thinkers like Emmanuel Mounier and Jacques Maritain, the Trudeau of the Charter was noted for an "individualism and visceral anti-nationalism which perfectly suited English Canada, scared by Quebec's desire to emancipate itself."

But then why do French-speaking Quebecers appreciate the Charter as much, if not more, than other Canadians? A survey conducted in April, 2002, showed that nearly 88% of Canadians think that the Charter is a good thing. Especially noteworthy is that French speaking Quebecers not only supported the Charter in greater numbers (91%) but support for it is strongest (92%) among those who are favourable to independence.

How could we account for these findings? I will attempt to show here that a significant Christian influence impregnates the Charter. And its source is to be found in Trudeau's Catholic education at a Jesuit College, Jean-de-Brebeuf, in Montreal. A student at this prestigious school from 1932 to 1940, Trudeau was profoundly affected by the education he received there. As revealed by his notes and letters, he enjoyed all his courses, but especially those in religion.

The fundamental value that Trudeau retained from these latter courses, the one that interests us here, is the primacy of the human person. "Nothing so revolts a man as to remind him of his supreme dignity as a son of God," he wrote in the student newspaper in 1939. Talking to the graduates worried by the ominous sounds of war and by the persisting economic crises, he urged them to place their confidence in God and in themselves. One can already see the germ of the notion of a "just society," which constitutes the backbone of the political program of Trudeau, the statesman.

Another lesson he learned, as did most Brebeuf students, was that as a member of the elite, he had obligations toward his people. He had to guide them toward the Good and the Just. Moreover, in accordance with the Jesuit tradition of involvement in the temporal realm to improve society, the Christian notion of fraternity took for him a clear political dimension.

Later, Trudeau turned to the "personnalistes," and especially to the great European Catholic thinker Jacques Maritain, whose influence would later be felt in the Canadian Charter.

In Maritain's view, the common good was not the sum of the goods of the people who make up society, as the libertarians would have it. Nor is it the good of the nation as asserted by communitarians and nationalists. Life in society, Maritain vigorously asserted, has as its goal "the good life of a multitude of human persons, who are full physical and spiritual beings." For the Christian and humanist Maritain, human dignity is an absolute value that does not tolerate any compromise.

But for Maritain it wasn't enough to believe abstractly in the primacy of the person, it was imperative to render this value operative. This is the function of a Charter of Rights: It is the instrument through which moral values are given primacy within a given political order.

Trudeau often acknowledged Maritain's influence. For example, he wrote in 1990 in The Search of a Just Society: "The adoption of a Charter of Rights is fully inscribed in the purest tradition of liberal humanism: All members of society have a certain number of fundamental inalienable rights. They are 'human personalities' (Maritain), moral beings who are free and equal, each having an absolute dignity and an infinite value ... It follows that only the human person can have rights; the collectivity can only hold these rights in trust and exercise them in a fiduciary capacity."

For Trudeau, as for Maritain, authority can be exercised only in "a fiduciary capacity," because citizens are autonomous and free beings and they alone bear rights. By entrenching the fundamental rights of the individual in the Constitution, the Charter confers powers on citizens who, so armed, can fight against the arbitrary actions of their governments.

A number of values underlie the Charter. Trudeau wrote that he long believed "that the most important value of a just society and its principal characteristic was freedom and its exercise." Later in his life, he added to the principle of liberty the principle of "equality of opportunities." The equality of the two official languages, English and French, entrenched in the Constitution, is just one example of the manifestation of this value. Article 15, which protects the individual against all forms of discrimination, is another example.

Thus, far from reflecting an excessive liberalism or individualism, the Canadian Charter seeks to enhance the quality of life of a "multitude of human persons" by entrenching fundamental and inalienable rights. The Charter, as Trudeau believed, translates into law the universal values on which people of good will can agree in order to build a better society. For Trudeau, these values, which he first came across at College Brebeuf, were both Christian and universal. It is thus not surprising that all Canadians appreciate the Charter: The "moral order" that it reflects is true to their own values. If Quebecers cherish it especially, it is because it is doubtless part of their cultural heritage.

Max Nemni is a retired professor of political science (at Laval University in Quebec City). He is co-author, with his wife Monique, of Young Trudeau: Son of Quebec, Father of Canada - Volume 1: 1919-1944. This essay is excerpted from the February issue of Policy Options, in conjunction with the McGill Institute for the Study of Canada's conference, The Charter @ 25