The recent
history of
Canada has witnessed an
all-sided offensive against the rights and freedoms of citizens and
residents in the name of "national security," the
"fight against terror" and "economic prosperity." Many incoherent
arguments are given to justify the alleged need to negate rights. In
the name of protecting the democracy, freedom of
speech is allowed so long as the political police say it is not
damaging, based on criteria they claim protects the national interest.
The principle that people have rights by virtue of being
human under all conditions and that the state is obligated to guarantee
those rights does not guide government action. The example of the
buyout of the Trans Mountain Corporation and
approval of the Trans Mountain Pipeline expansion shows how the
prerogative powers of government are used to override serious
environmental concerns and the lack of consent of many
Indigenous peoples, as well as the Canadian people as a whole.
The
Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms was
incorporated into the patriated Constitution in 1982. The Charter
contains the provision of "reasonable limits [on rights and
freedoms] prescribed by law as can be demonstrably justified in a free
and democratic society." The Charter has fallen into crisis and
disrepute as "reasonable limits" defined by the arbitrary
powers of the state known as police powers are not seen to be
"reasonable." To have a tiny elite, that behind closed doors, dictates
the rights the people may or may not have does not go over well. This
is how they were dictated by Lord Durham, representing the
colonial police power, in the 19th century. This has resulted in an
endless arbitrary process of criminalization of
conscience and attacks against the struggles of the people who oppose
the anti-social offensive and the agenda of war and regime change of
the ruling elite on the side of the U.S.
imperialists and U.S.-led NATO.
Attacks on rights
under the hoax of exceptional circumstances have
become the norm, while communities, such as the Muslim community, are
profiled and targeted with a vengeance
and without a right to recourse. Nowadays the rulers have given
themselves the right to defame whosoever they wish by impugning their
character so as to make themselves appear righteous.
All of it is done in the name of high ideals such as protecting women,
national minorities, Indigenous peoples and LGBTQ2S+ people. The absence of a
constitution that prescribes inalienable rights
and makes them enforceable and judiciable is acutely felt all across
the country. The failure of current institutions to provide mechanisms
to sort out conflicting interests, opinion and
beliefs shows that the system called a liberal democracy is not
commensurate with the needs of the times.
Furthermore,
the arrangements at the base of Confederation are being
destroyed as governments at all levels, whether federal, provincial or
municipal, have been taken over by narrow
global private interests. They have become instruments of decisions
made on a supranational basis, be that by the G7, G20, IMF, NATO or
others.
The ruling elite
no longer consider the old
arrangements of
power-sharing between the federal and provincial governments useful for
the drive for control of the most powerful global interests.
They do not recognize any jurisdiction or limitation on their monopoly
right and striving for domination on a world scale. The contradictions
over federal/provincial power-sharing
agreements have degenerated into dogfights amongst governments serving
definite global monopoly interests. This can be readily seen in the
privatization of everything from education to
health care to government services, infrastructure projects,
transportation and communications and all government policies and
policy-making.
The Prime Minister's Office and
certain high level government
operatives are continuously caught in schemes to pay the rich such as
the global monopoly SNC-Lavalin, Big Pharma,
high tech corporations, and war production, to name just a few. The
ruling elites have shown themselves to be serial violators of the rule
of law internationally as well, openly conspiring
with the U.S. to destabilize and overthrow governments targeted for
regime change and, in the case of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela,
mete out collective punishment to its
population in the form of “sanctions” amounting to an economic war against the country.
The
need to renew the Constitution to vest sovereignty in the people
and guarantee their rights as the basis of Canadian sovereignty has
never been greater. Political and constitutional
renewal, far from being outdated or what the ruling elite call "a
divisive issue," is central to opening the path to the progress of
society. In this regard, the working class and other social
classes and strata are called on to examine the evolution of the
democratic institutions in Canada, the interests they serve, in what
direction they are being taken and what needs to be done
to give form and content to the people's aspirations for sovereignty,
empowerment and enlightenment. It is a fundamental human right to be
able to decide and control those political,
economic and social affairs that affect one's life.
Constitutions
and constitutional matters must not be a monopoly of a
ruling elite that use them for their own narrow self-serving private
interests. They belong to the people fighting to
defend their rights. Canadians want to enshrine and codify in a
constitution the modern definitions to which they aspire and which are
in conformity with the concrete conditions. The fight
to renew Confederation on a modern basis is an instrument in the hands
of the people to further the public interest, open a path forward and
block the arbitrariness, backwardness, anarchy,
violence and wars that the ruling elite have unleashed.
Let
us organize for a modern constitution and a free and equal union
of sovereign peoples whose rights are recognized and guaranteed.
This article was published in
Volume 51 Number 17 - July 1, 2021
Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/Tmlm2021/Articles/MS51172.HTM
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
