A Nation of Snowflakes: The Imperative to Interpret the Charter Of Rights and Freedoms Using the Lens of the Preamble
By Dr. Charles I M Lugosi, SJD with the Hon. Brian Peckford
©Charles I M Lugosi
PREPARED FOR PRESENTATION AT THE RECLAIM CANADA CONFERENCE MAY 26-28 , 2023, VICTORIA , BC —The First OF TWO ESSAYS
1 This gathering is a congress of the people who choose to reclaim the original founding goals of this nation.
2 What we have in common is a passion for liberty, equality and justice, and to live in a society and nation where no one is above the law.
3 We have boldly and courageously proclaimed the truth, in a society that prefers lies that panders to political agendas that rewards those who conform to the goals of those in power and oppresses those who value truth, moral integrity and love for one another.
4 The values that bind us together are all derived from the Judeo-Christian faith that is at the root of the common law and the constitutional law upon which Canada was founded upon. In Saumur v. City of Quebec, [1953] 2 S.C.R. 299 at 329, Justice Rand noted how the Christian religion is “embodied in the highest level of the constitutionalism of Great Britain,” and by virtue of the “similar in principle” clause of the Constitution Act, 1867, Canada.
Justice Rand recognized that Canada was a Christian nation, which worshipped the God of the Bible:
‘The Christian religion, its practices and profession, exhibiting in Europe and America an organic continuity, stands in the first rank of social, political and juristic importance. … the untrammeled affirmations of religious belief and its propagation, personal or institutional, remain as of the greatest constitutional significance throughout the Dominion is unquestionable.” [p. 328]
5 This country was established as a Christian nation. The source of the common law is found in the Christian religion, and voluntary submission to the Supremacy of God. It was God who gave His Law, beginning with the Ten Commandments, to first, the Jewish people, and then later, to everyone in the world. Following those Commandments brings blessings, peace, prosperity, joy and an ordered civilized society. Not following those commandments brings tyranny, destruction and sorrow.
6 God’s Law is religious and moral. Morality is inseparable from the Law. The Law reveals, establishes and declares what is moral, just and right, applying equally to all people in society. No one is above the Law. The Law discriminates between what is moral and immoral; right from wrong; good from bad; and, truth from lies.
7 Any transgression of the Law is an offense against God and against society. The Law is an absolute unchanging moral order to which people must conform. It is not negotiable. As a whole, the Law has coherent integrity and consistency. People must conform to the Law. Law must not conform to the sinful desires of people. God’s word is truth, and the Law is truth.
8 In 1982, the Constitution Act, 1982 became part of the Constitution of Canada. Included in this Act, was the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. As the supreme law of Canada, the Preamble to the Charter provides the lens of judicial interpretation through which the courts are compelled to assess and evaluate the constitutionality of legislation and government behavior. The Preamble declares,
“… Canada is founded upon principles that recognize the supremacy of God and the rule of law.”
Brian Peckford, the last living Premier who participated in the negotiations, drafting and signing of the Charter, states,
“At the time of the Charter creation, it was self-evident to those formulating the provision that God referred to the Judeo Christian God. We knew no other.”
9 Canada’s source of constitutional authority is the Supremacy of God, which ordains and establishes the Rule of Law. The substantive provisions that follow the Preamble grant powers, confer rights and limit government power.
What is crucial to understand is that the content of the Preamble is the only legitimate lens to understand, interpret and apply all the substantive and procedural provisions of the Constitution, so that it is interpreted and applied in a manner faithful to the principles set out in the Preamble.
Canada’s entire Constitution mandates that for a law to be declared constitutional, it must conform to the Supremacy of God, and be just, which is more than being simply legal. Law is only recognized as just, when it is fair, inherently moral and grounded in truth. It must also reflect natural law, values that benefit our common good and are instinctively known to all people.
10 Brian Peckford states,
‘Where does the idea come from that the first words of the Charter may not carry the force of law? The First Ministers involved in the Charter’s creation would be shocked to hear such words being spoken. It was clearly understood by all the First Ministers of the time that all the words of the Charter had the force of law and that the Supremacy of God and the Rule of Law was the lens through which the Charter would be interpreted.”
11 Early in the Charter era, the Supreme Court deviated from the intent of the First Ministers and created its own way to interpret the Constitution, which is now engrained in its jurisprudence. This is how it happened.
12 From 1984-1985, the Supreme Court had an opportunity to establish a framework of constitutional interpretation through the lens of the Preamble.
Not one member of the Court in R. Big M Drug Mart, [1985] 1 S.C.R. 295, which struck down provincial Sunday observance legislation, referred to the Preamble in their legal analysis. The only reference to the Preamble occurred at para. 17 when Chief Justice Dickson repeated without commentary an extract from the judgment of the trial judge who stated:
“ Bearing in mind that the preamble may not carry the force of law, it still shows that the Charter does not recognize any particular denomination, and (noticeable by its absence) it does not refer to a Christian God. The preamble surely is intended to reflect the multicultural and multidenominational makeup of Canada.”
The Court indirectly approved this incorrect interpretation at para. 99 and para. 148 by overriding the intent of the First Ministers and applied s. 27 of the Charter, the multicultural heritage clause, to recognize the worship of other deities. The Court choose freedom from the commandment of the Christian God to honor the Sabbath and defied the Supremacy of the Judeo-Christian God.
13 Rather than use the Preamble as the lens to interpret the Constitution, the Court invented its own doctrine. At para. 115-117, the Court stated,
“… the Charter is intended to set a standard upon which present as well as future legislation is to be tested. Therefore the meaning of the concept of freedom of conscience and religion is not to be determined solely by the degree to which that right was enjoyed by Canadians prior to the proclamation of the Charter. We must look, rather, to the distinctive principles of constitutional interpretation appropriate to expounding the supreme law of Canada … In Hunter v. Southam Inc., [1984] 2 S.C.R. 145, this Court expressed the view that the proper approach to the definition of the rights and freedoms guaranteed by the Charter was a purposive one.
The meaning of a right or freedom guaranteed by the Charter was to be ascertained by an analysis of the purpose of such a guarantee; it was to be understood, in other words, in the light of the interests it was meant to protect. … In my view this analysis is to be undertaken, and the purpose of the right or freedom in question is to be sought by reference to the character and the larger objects of the Charter itself, to the language chosen to articulate the specific right or freedom, to the historical origins of the concepts enshrined, and where applicable, to the meaning and purpose of the other specific rights and freedoms with which it is associated within the text of the Charter.
The interpretation should be … a generous rather than a legalistic one, aimed at fulfilling the purpose of the guarantee and securing for individuals the full benefit of the Charter‘s protection. At the same time it is important not to overshoot the actual purpose of the right or freedom in question, but to recall that the Charter was not enacted in a vacuum …”
Unfortunately, the Court acted in a vacuum, failing to apply, let alone acknowledge, the Preamble to the Constitution Act, 1982.
14 By discarding the Supremacy of the Judeo-Christian God, the way was paved for the Court to rebel against the Supremacy of God.
By elevating the multicultural society clause above the Supremacy of God, the Court laid down the foundation for a secular, tyrannical atheistic state hostile to Christianity, in which what biblical Christians believe is good is treated by law as evil, resulting in the repeal of laws banning abortion, adultery, buggery, blasphemy, working on the Sabbath day of rest, and euthanasia, and what biblical Christians believe to be evil becomes popularly viewed as good and legalized.
15 Constitutional interpretation without using the lens of the Preamble has resulted in the moral decline of Canada and the legalization of immoral conduct that is tolerated and aggressively promoted in the name of human rights, diversity, inclusion and equity.
16 Without the Supremacy of God, there developed over time a serious misunderstanding of the other pillar of interpretation, the Rule of Law.
17 When informed by the Supremacy of God, the “Rule of Law” is defined as life in a society governed by inherently just moral laws sourced from the Law given by God, where the people are submissive and obedient to the Supremacy of God.
Life under the “Rule of Law” means to live in a free and democratic society that honors God’s Commandments, abiding by absolute standards of right and wrong, in a society characterized by willful obedience to truth, justice and righteousness. Constitutional limits are placed on the power of government, to permanently guarantee and protect the freedoms of conscience, religion, and morality from infringement.
The authentic Rule of Law ensures equality, for no one individual or faction is above the law. All human beings, at all stages of life, from conception to natural death, have equal absolute inalienable rights to life, liberty and security of the person. The powers of the government are limited. All branches of government, whether executive, legislative, or judicial, are under the law, and accountable to moral and constitutional scrutiny to ensure conformity with the authentic Rule of Law. Justice, truth, freedom and democracy are the hallmarks of the Rule of Law.
18 Without the Supremacy of God, the “Rule of Law” evolved into a “Rule by Law” society that is governed by legalism. The source of authority for Rule by Law in today’s Western society is human reasoning divorced from morality that advances political goals that evolve with changing secular values.
The laws of this society reflect a humanistic cluster of beliefs that breeds totalitarianism, oppresses minorities, creates class and racial division, imposes identity politics, fosters intolerance and promotes idolatrous self-love. These collective beliefs are incompatible with freedom and democracy. In this society, there are no absolute standards of right and wrong, but moral relativism and prejudice.
This secular regime is empowered by positive law and social conditioning through propaganda. Society is characterized by coerced deferential obedience to legalism falsely labelled as the Rule of Law.
Christian morality is ridiculed and purged from law. Inequality pervades society. Legal fiction replaces truth, so people live by lies. God is no longer the source of law. Extremist ideology that embraces Marxist, immoral, hedonistic and woke ideology is the driving force for social, political and legal changes.
The Supremacy of God is mocked, ignored and dishonored. The Preamble to Canada’s Constitution is viewed as meaningless rhetorical nonsense. Injustice, immorality, corruption, coercion, social division, oppression of political opponents, a police state, social control through invasive surveillance and the suppression of truth are common characteristics of this kind of regime.
19 The main distinguishing difference between the two regimes is the presence or the absence of humble deference to the Supremacy of God, and whether or not all the branches of government obey and enforce the authentic Rule of Law.
20 Canada has degenerated into a Rule by Law society. God’s laws that were once embedded in the common law and in jurisprudence have become relics, or fossils, replaced by laws and judicial decisions derived solely from human philosophy and rational reasoning.
Canadian court decisions now legitimize immoral conduct such as adultery, murder of unborn children, homosexuality that were forbidden by the Law of God. The current government’s naked hostility to God and Judeo-Christian values and its adoption of an intolerant woke secular culture results in the persecution of Christians, the silencing and oppression of dissidents, the loss of fundamental freedoms and the corrupt interpretation of the Constitution of Canada.
The reality is that the Canadian government is at its heart atheistic, for the constitutional principles set out in the Preamble are disregarded, replaced by a Rule by Law society, where humanism prevails and God, truth and justice are purged.
21 Lord Alfred Denning, considered by many to be one of the greatest English jurist in the past century, predicted in 1952, in his book, The Changing Law, of the inevitable disintegration of the authentic Rule of Law when God, truth and Christian morals are expunged from society:
“Religion concerns the spirit in man whereby he is able to recognize what is truth and what is justice; whereas law is only the application, however imperfectly, of truth and justice in our everyday affairs. If religion perishes in the land, truth and justice will also [p. 122] … [A]lthough religion, law and morals can be separated, they are nevertheless still very much dependent on each other. Without religion there can be no morality: and without morality there can be no law. [p. 99]”
22 This year, without consultation or debate, the government of Justin Trudeau secretly redesigned the Canadian Royal Crown that sits on top of the Canada Coat of Arms. The Christian Cross that honors the Christian faith and the Supremacy of God has been replaced by a snowflake at the top of the Crown. Ironically the snowflake aptly symbolizes those who oppose the Christian faith.
In today’s culture, a “snowflake” is understood in common parlance to be a person who has an inflated sense of uniqueness, an unwarranted sense of entitlement, or is overly emotional, easily offended, and unable to deal with opposing opinions.
The other religious symbol, the fleur-de-lis, was also removed and replaced by maple leafs. The fleur-delis, is understood to represent the purity of the Virgin Mary and the Holy Trinity. The maple leaf, which grows on maple trees in Ontario and Quebec, illustrate the importance of central Canada, and honors indirectly a hockey team, the Toronto Maple Leafs, that is long overdue for a Stanley Cup victory.
23 How did Canada become a nation of snowflakes?
It was the job of the Supreme Court of Canada to give force to the Preamble and to uphold the Supremacy of God and the Rule of Rule. After all, the Supreme Court since Confederation has faithfully given the Preamble to the Constitution Act, 1867, the force of law. The beginning of that Preamble states:
“Whereas the Provinces of Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick have expressed their Desire to be federally united into One Dominion under the Crown of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, with a Constitution similar in Principle to that of the United Kingdom:”
Given this historical legal precedent, it was properly assumed by the First Ministers that the Supreme Court would also faithfully uphold the Preamble to the Constitution Act, 1982, that mandates submission to the Supremacy of God and conformity to the authentic Rule of Law.
But what the First Ministers did not foresee is the Court’s selective enforcement of one constitutional Preamble but not the other.
24 It is regrettable that the people of Canada have failed to learn from history. Before his 1946 execution as a war criminal at Nuremburg, German Nazi politician Hans Frank eloquently warned future generations not to turn away from God:
“… Even now … we still bear a tremendous spiritual responsibility. At the beginning of our way we did not suspect that our turning away from God could have such disastrous deadly consequences … by turning away from God, we were overthrown and had to perish … I beg of our people not to continue in this direction, be it even a single step, because Hitler’s road was the way without God, the way of turning from Christ, and, in the last analysis, the way of political foolishness … return from this road which according to the law and justice of God, had to lead us and our system into disaster and which will lead everyone to disaster who tries to walk on it.” https://www.tracesofwar.
25 Those among us who are not religious or do not believe in God may wonder why the preservation of the supremacy of God in our society and the restoration of the authentic Rule of Law is paramount to guaranteeing our freedoms and to end Canada’s steady slide into tyranny.
The answer is simple. Freedom, equality, truth and justice are foundational values found in the Bible. But for Christianity, there would be rampant racism, slavery, discrimination, loss of freedoms and rule by coercive laws. Christianity was the bedrock of Western civilization. Christian teachings and morals introduced the sanctity of human life, criminal laws against behavior that transgressed God’s Commandments, and protected marriage and all members of families from harm.
The influence of Christianity is embedded in art, music, literature, architecture, the calendar, the public holidays, taking a day of rest from work, the practice of swearing upon a Bible to tell the truth, the establishment of hospitals, charities, universities and schools to care for the sick, the poor and the young.
The moral values and virtues of Christianity has made this world a better place. Yet in Canada, hundreds of churches have been burned down, preachers jailed for opening their churches and preaching the gospel during Covid, and Christian students denied summer job funding because their potential employers were denied government grants just because they refused to support abortion.
Christians are now targeted for oppression and regarded by many as political enemies. Don’t think that once Christians have been rendered powerless that the government won’t come after you, for there will always be a next group to silence and purge.
26 Many Canadians intuitively know that something is very wrong with their political and legal system and have struggled to articulate the reason why.
The answer is found in the way an activist Supreme Court has chosen to wrongfully interpret the Constitution, by abandoning the interpretive lens of the Preamble by ignoring the Supremacy of God and its substitution of the Rule by Law for the authentic Rule of Law.
27 It is time to stop politicians from appointing judges who will impose their own vision of society for the vision of those elected First Ministers who signed the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Vote only for the candidates who share your beliefs and values. Stop voting strategically for a political party only because you think it has the best chance to defeat the ruling party.
Vote for the party that will fight for what you believe in. Vote according to your conscience, and be true to your moral principles.
