Canadian democracy beware
By Letter to the Editor on May 5, 2020.
The Canadian Charter of Rights begins: “Whereas Canada is founded upon principles that recognize the supremacy of God and the rule of law”… Why does the first statement acknowledge “God’s supremacy”? Perhaps because all of the great minds before us recognized the fallibility and corruptness of human nature. The Bible reminds us often that “man is sinful by nature”. Unfortunately our society has given over control to progressive thinkers who dispense rights as it chooses because they think they will improve human nature. In other words the first statement of the Charter is largely ignored today. Thus the final authority for how we live life is being expunged from a private individual’s responsibility and taken over by the communal state. And from that it seems Canadian Society has come to believe only the government can give us rights, rather than governments existing to secure rights that pre-exist, from a greater authority. The Word of God may say that “Life” is given by the Creator, but today the progressivists have made ‘life’ a right the government can routinely give or withhold. And the transformation continues today. Under the guise of ‘individual rights’ the government enacts measures to make Canadians comfortable with dependancy upon the state. How do they do this? First, remove the study of History from the classrooms of the country. Another way is to finance dependancy by piling up public debt that forces unconsenting future generations to pay for current consumption. Still, another way consists of transferring wealth to members of groups that governments have decided to label ‘special status’. Which has come to make the word “rights” synonymous with “entitlements”. So when I heard a commentator today say “only big government has the means to rescue us from the pandemic”, I shuddered. It becomes just another way to remove our society from the moorings of a heritage steeped in knowledge of a corrupt human nature. And, replace it with an increasingly totalitarian state whose values reflect our present flavour of corruption… unchecked. Whether you believe in God or not, this should scare us all. Richard Dietrich Medicine Hat 6-5
As law professor Lorne Sossin has noted,
“the reference in the Preamble of the Charter to the “supremacy of God” represents the actual term in the Charter about which the [Supreme] Court has said the least. The supremacy of God… is difficult to conceive as a justiciable concept. It cannot be substantiated nor can it be disproven… the supremacy of God has not been the subject of judicial elaboration. Not even the most basic questions about its place and purpose in the Charter have been addressed. Whose God is supreme and supreme in what way? Are the supremacy of God and the rule of law intended to be complementary constitutional principles, or distinct? How and should the supremacy of God be reconciled with the freedom of conscience and religion provisions under s. 2 of the Charter?” [4]
Justice Lorne Sossin was appointed to the Ontario Superior Court of Justice in December, 2018.