The Canadian legal system, although flawed, can often address the needs of society. The legal system takes into account many things when coming to conclusions. The history of law, human rights, criminal law, and civil law are all critical factors that have helped the Canadian legal system become what it is today. Although these factors have changed drastically over time, which has allowed the Legal system to keep up with modern times. These four main factors are what help the Canadian Legal system best address the needs of society.
The History of law has helped form Canadian law today. Considering this we still have kept many of the concepts of law that were established long before. However, we have moved away from some former practices. The
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The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms has made a huge impact on establishing Human Rights. The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms guarantees and protects a number of rights and freedoms with reasonable limits prescribed by law. The Charter guarantees the right to equality, democracy, and mobility. The freedoms include freedom of conscience, religion, and peaceful assembly. The Charter is a powerful force for protection, and fairness with the power to influence our society by interpreting laws and policies. A case that involved a violation of the Human rights code was the Sue Rodriguez case. She was an activist for the right to euthanasia. She protested that the denial of medically assisted suicide violated sections 7,12, and 15 of the Charter of Rights and freedoms. The denial violated her right to life, the right not to be subjected to any cruel and unusual treatment or punishment, and the right to be treated with the same respect, dignity, and consideration as any other human being despite her disability. The supreme court dismissed her case, and while doing this they overstepped the bounds of their position. The Charter is in place to ensure that the government doesn't take away or interfere with these rights and freedoms in an unjust way. It helps regulate the power of the government over citizens. In this case, the government violated the charter. The …show more content…
Typical Civil Law cases or lawsuits fall under Tort Law, Family Law, Contract Law, Labour Law, and Property Law. The main purpose of Civil Law is to compensate for harm. It is usually in the form of damages and the money awarded to a plaintiff for harm, loss, or injury. In many cases, the legal system may choose to bring in alternate dispute resolutions that can help solve civil disputes without having a formal trial. One thing the Canadian legal system can bring in is mediation to help resolve the situation. Mediation is typically a neutral third party that is brought in to help the parties resolve their dispute. The goal of mediation is to clear up misunderstandings, determine concerns, find areas of agreement, and incorporate those areas into solutions. Although a mediator has no decision-making power, they can often help cases resolve more peacefully. The legal system often does this because it helps find solutions faster without there being a lot of tension between the Canadian legal system and society. Overall this allows for a better relationship and allows for the legal system to address the needs of society in a just
The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms is located in the first part of the Canadian Constitution and came into effect on April 17, 1982. The Charter is a document that outlines a set of constitutional principles that assist in creating a free and democratic country and is the most important of the laws in Canada. Some of the laws include: Fundamental freedoms (e.g. freedom of expression); democratic rights (e.g. the right to vote); mobility rights (e.g. the right to live wherever one choses in Canada); legal rights (e.g. the right to life and security); equality rights; language rights; minority-language educational rights and aboriginal and treaty rights. These laws guarantee the basic values of fairness, respect and tolerance for every
Officials had infringed upon the fundamental freedom in section 2 subsection 2(b), which concerns: the freedom of thought, belief, opinion, and expression. By confiscating specifically Little Sisters’ shipments of books and magazines, on the grounds of “obscenity”, Canada Customs halted and censored expression of gay and lesbian media. Additionally, Canada Customs was responsible for the infringement upon section 8 of The Charter, which pertains to the right of security against unreasonable search or seizure. Little Sisters’ shipments were repeatedly confiscated and detained, without just cause. Thirdly, Little Sisters’ right to equality under section 15 subsection 1 was violated because the discrimination they were subjected to was likely caused because of the fact that Little Sisters is run by and for the LGBT community.
However contemporary Canada is not without its issues, as stated earlier. Even with these important lessons, and our written out charter that has the basic rights for humans, we still fail to support and provide these rights to many marginalised communities and
In 1892 the Canadian Criminal Code was proclaimed for a country that was never thought of to become a nation with more than 35 million individuals and as developed as it is politically, socially, and economically. Our great nation has expanded into an ever changing and transitioning society that as it moves forward crimes are committed across the board by individuals of Canada’s various different races and cultures, where in which sentences are demanded to ensure Canada remains fair and just. The 1892 Criminal Code didn’t account for the developments, expansions, and transitions that Canada has endured over a hundred years, and Canada looks nothing like it did in 1892. Due to the changes, our provinces and territories have all developed substantially;
Canada is a diverse country, which consists of many ethnic groups and religions. The Canadian justice system does not abide too any religion or specific culture but too all. The Canadian justice system is one of the greatest in the world and consists of many different aspects, including public law and private law. The Canadian justice system is not the only system in the world but also one of the youngest systems when looking at code of Hammurabi. Code of Hammurabi is the earliest written laws in the world.
Civic Reflection Issue 1- Change in Point of View The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms is a bill of rights which outlines and protects the basic rights and fundamental freedoms that all Canadians have. These include the fundamental freedoms, democratic rights, mobility rights, legal rights, equality rights, language rights, and Aboriginal and treaty rights. The Canadian Charter of Rights is extremely important to the citizens of Canada as it has given important meaning to the protection of our rights. It makes sure that minorities and vulnerable groups are protected through equality rights.
In the protection of human rights, one of the most significant advancements in Canada is the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The Charter was entrenched in the Canadian Constitution under the leadership of the Prime Minister, Pierre Elliot Trudeau and it was a part of a larger reform that patriated our Constitution in 1982. A constitution is a set of fundamental rules creating, regulating, and limiting the basic powers of the government and Canada’s charter guarantees the rights and freedoms that are essential in a free and democratic society. Most importantly, the term entrenchment means that the Charter can only be revised through a series of steps that requires substantial agreement from both federal and provincial governments. In this paper,
4)Robert J. Sharpe, Patricia I. McMahon Persons Case: The Origins and Legacy of the Fight for Legal Personhood. Toronto: Univ of Toronto Press, 2007, 1-206 5) Michael Dorland and Maurice René. Charland, Law, rhetoric and irony in the formation of Canadian civil culture (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2002), 218. 6) Vivien Hughes.
Libman v. Quebec, Longley v. Canada, and Harper v. Canada, all related to the electoral process or voter rights, were circulating the legal system similarly debating the legality of specific parts of the electoral process that
Before the Charter, many people may argue that Canada was a free and democratic country. Canadians had the freedom of expression, equality and the principles of fundamental justice. What changed with the creation of the Charter was that rights and freedoms were given constitutional status, and judges were given the power to strike down laws that infringed on them. In 1982, most Canadians agreed that the introduction of the Charter was going to monumental. But on the contrary, over 30 years later, numerous laws have been struck down by interpretation of the charter and remedial techniques that have been developed by courts.
“To deny people their human rights, is to challenge their very humanity.” -Nelson Mandela Canada is well known across the world for handling its national challenges well, yet has not been obeying the human rights. The human rights were made so everyone was equal and no one had higher power. According to Canada.ca, Canada is a founding member of the United Nation, (UN) and is a party to seven principal United Nations human rights conventions and covenants.
[5] Common law works in a different way, the judges rather than the Parliament make common law or ‘judge-made law’. Considering criminal and civil cases, the judges take decisions based on the stare decisis principle (Latin “to stand by things decided”, the legal principle of determining points in litigation according to precedent [4]), deliver rulings and create precedents, thus applying the law to real life situations. Therefore, the value of the precedent is very high in the English Common Law system. The strengths of common law
Mediation is a form of alternative dispute resolution in which a neutral third party helps disputants resolve a conflict (Bishop, p. 64). The employee/supervisor mediation was my first experience role-playing as a mediator in a dispute. I enjoyed the experience and recognized how significant the role of a mediator was. There are many strategies/avenues a mediator can take when conducting a mediation and it is imperative that the mediator is able to adapt their mediation strategy in order to satisfy the party’s needs. This in-class role-play gave me the opportunity to apply all the knowledge that I learned during the course, to a real workplace scenario.
Introduction Civil Justice System The civil justice system exists in order to enable individuals, businesses, and local and central government to vindicate, and where necessary, enforce their civil legal rights and obligations, whether those rights are private or public. It ensures that the rights and protection of citizens are called for. The rule of law dictates that government should not abuse their powers as per AV Dicey’s concept of the rule of law. In addition, the civil courts endorse economic activity, allowing contracts to be made between strangers because rights are taken care of in the courts if they are breached.
It is a particular type of third party involvement. The literature review explains the lack of agreement about the description of mediation, though Bercovitch explained an appropriate description. He explained mediation as a system of conflict management, linked to but particular from the parties' own attempts, where the conflicting parties or their representatives look the support, or accept an offer of support, from a person, group, organisation or state to modify, impact or impact their behaviour or perceptions, without resorting to physical force or appealing the legal authority”