sentation in the governing of the nation — representation on the basis of population where the general power to legislate is concerned, and representation related to Canada’s regions and linguistic groups where the power to legislate is particularly concerned with identity and the rights of these regions and groups. We should expect to find a balanced division of the power to govern between the federal and provincial governments — balanced in the powers it assigns to each and balanced in its concern for the needs of the present and those of the future.<\/p>\n
Having formulated these goals and these guiding principles, the Government of Canada believes it is appropriate for it to present to the people, the Parliament and the Provinces of Canada its general views on Canada’s Constitution.<\/p>\n
The Rights of Citizens and Canada’s Linguistic Duality<\/strong><\/p>\n The first goal of the Canadian federation, in the opinion of the Government of Canada, is the protection of the rights of the individual. This means to begin with, the guarantee of individual human rights for all Canadians. This is a fundamental condition of nationhood: take these rights away and few Canadians would think their country was worth preserving. In a country such as ours, with its two founding linguistic groups, the preservation of individual rights also must mean the guarantee of the linguistic rights of both groups. For language is at once the extension of the individual personality and an indispensible [sic] tool of social organization: fail to recognize the linguistic rights of either French or English-speaking Canadians and their will to preserve Canada will be seriously weakened, if not destroyed.<\/p>\n The rights of the individual — human and linguistic — are so fundamental to the will of the nation to survive, that the Government of Canada suggests as the first step in reviewing Canada’s Constitution the guarantee of these rights in the fundamental law. For this purpose we propose the incorporation into Canada’s Constitution of a Charter of Human Rights as quickly as the federal and provincial governments and legislative bodies can agree. For the same purpose we propose that the recommendations in Book I of the Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism be considered by this Conference, and that each government here represented agree now to the declarations of principle and of objectives set forth in the recommendations, and set in motion the machinery for realizing these goals as soon as possible.<\/p>\n A Canadian Charter of Human Rights<\/strong><\/p>\n An important forward step was taken when the Parliament of Canada enacted in 1960 a Bill of Rights which guaranteed the rights of Canadians, 18<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" sentation in the governing of the nation — representation on the basis of population where the general power to legislate is concerned, and representation related to Canada’s regions and linguistic groups where the power to legislate is particularly concerned with identity and the rights of these regions and groups. We should expect to find a balanced…<\/p>\n
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