The Report: Executive Summary:
'On April 17, 2022, Canadians will mark the 40th anniversary of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms becoming part of Canada's Constitution. Sadly, the anniversary is marred by two years of Charter rights and freedoms violations, perpetrated by its federal and provincial governments during which Canada became in many ways more like a police state than the "free and democratic society" which the Charter sets out as its ideal.
'When the Covid pandemic first began, all Canada's provincial governments initially violated Canadians’ Charter rights in much the same way. As time went by however, provincial government responses became increasingly varied, as did the experiences of Canadians living with them. Quebec's Charter violations were arguably the worst, including curfews, travel restrictions and serious violations of religious freedom. B.C. and Manitoba also seriously infringed Charter religious freedoms, with B.C. closing churches for an astonishing 14 months. But while Manitoba also violated mobility rights, its church closures were measured in weeks, not months. After Quebec and B.C., Manitoba was the third-worst place to be.
'Canadians living in Ontario had a somewhat easier time of it. That said, lengthy provincial stay-at-home orders, intended by Premier Doug Ford to be enforced with random police stops, showed an alarming government comfort with Soviet-style enforcement. Ontario’s mutual border closures with Manitoba and Quebec also violated Canadians’ Charter right to move. The province prosecuted and fined some pastors and congregations which defied public health orders, but unlike Alberta, at least did not jail anyone. No province closed its schools for longer than Ontario. 1 Yet Ontario avoided some of the worst excesses of other provinces.
'Within the so-called ‘Atlantic Bubble’ of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador and Prince Edward Island, Canadians could travel inside this region without needing to self-isolate, 2 but severe hardship was imposed on those needing to work in other provinces. In Saskatchewan and Alberta, centre-right premiers were less committed to lockdowns, inclined to impose them later and lift them earlier. Measures issued elsewhere as orders were sometimes just issued as recommendations in Alberta. It is also notable that at a time when nearby B.C. had closed houses of worship completely, neither Alberta nor Saskatchewan prohibited in-person worship entirely.
'Conversely, Alberta was the only province to jail pastors. The jailing of pastors was the direct result of a provincial government policy decision to seek and obtain court injunctions rather than relying on regular law enforcement. Jailed pastors were deprived of their Charter right to life, liberty and security of the person, for having exercised their Charter freedoms of conscience, religion, expression, association and peaceful assembly. Apart from this serious issue of jailing pastors, it could be said that Alberta's violations of Charter rights and freedoms were the least oppressive or the least egregious in Canada. All-in-all, it appears that Saskatchewan's violations of Charter rights and freedoms were the least severe in Canada. If true, this is no cause for Saskatchewan or its people to celebrate, because in every Canadian province the "two weeks to flatten the curve" became two years to flatten our freedoms...'
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