the authority
common law would find unacceptable, without provided by the Charter. Judges must be ready to invalidate legislation and executive acts in order to protect a vision
of
freedoms which
and the rights
Because such guarantees become part
then
stand guaranteed.
of the overriding law,
judges of
of the highest
they must be respected not only by courts, but by magistrates, police, government officials and
other citizens. The greater leeways for choice posed for
judges must be more openly recognised. No longer can large
reference to policy decisions be hidden behind voluminous
curial authority.
The judge comes face to
face
with
fundamental choices, starkly posed by the tension between the
suggested meaning of the general words of the charter and the
activities of officials and others which are impugned.
The
importance of approaching
a way different
a statement
of
basic
from ordinary legislation
was
rights in
recognised in the early decisions of the Supreme Court of
Canada on the Canadian Charter:
"The judiciary is the guardian of the Constitution and must, in interpreting its provisions, bear these considerations in mind. Professor Paul Freund expressed this idea aptly when he admonished the American courts 'not to read the provisions of the Constitution like a last will and testament lest it become
one'.
led in Canada to
a
broad
In
It is
has this approach which
purposive and generous interpretation of the basic rights and
the avoidance of a narrow and technical interpretations.
approaching the Charter in this way, the Canadian courts were
able to call upon the emphatic instruction of earlier common
law decisions. Thus, in 1929, Viscount Sankey in the Privy
Council, referred to the British North America Act as:
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