After 40 years, the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms has become a firm fixture of Canada’s constitutional architecture. More importantly, it has been embraced by Canadians across the political spectrum and has become one of the most popular emblems of our polity. Due to the prestige and importance of an instrument that has increasingly come to represent our national identity, it is not surprising that is has become a battleground, contested by those who hold fast to the idea that a constitution serves to limit the powers of government, and those who see it as a means of empowering the government to achieve their vision of a just society. Before the charter turns 50, Canada will have chosen between these two incompatible visions of our constitutional order.
