Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms – Plain Language

Canadian Charter
of Rights and
Freedoms
Plain Language Booklet
Produced by Christian Horizons

Table of Contents
Introduction and Disclaimer .............................. 3
1. What is the Charter?...................................... 5
2. What are your equality rights? .................... 6
3. What are your legal rights? .......................... 7
4. What are your fundamental freedoms? ....14
5. What are your mobility rights?...................16
6. What are your democratic rights?.............18
7. What are your language rights?..................19
Glossary ................................................................20
2

Introduction and Disclaimer
The text in this plain language version of the
Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms was
prepared by an organization called reachAbility:
http://www.reachability.org/ . It was used with
permission.
Please read their disclaimer:
The law is described here in plain language to make
it more accessible for persons with disabilities. We
provide this service to help our consumers begin to
understand the law as it applies to them and alert
themselves to legal issues as a first step of
advocating for themselves and their peers.
reachAbility does not present this information as an
accurate statement of the law and it should not be
taken as such. More authoritative statements of the
law can be found at http://laws.justice.gc.ca/en/ .
If you think your rights under the law presented
above have been infringed, you should seek
licensed legal counsel to discuss that problem.
http://reachability.org/legal_programming/lp_files/
Canadian_Charter_of_Rights_and_Freedoms.pdf ,
retrieved February 20, 2009.
Where some phrases have been clarified, the
clarification is in square brackets. These
clarifications are not part of the original text.
3

The Quality Assurance Team added the pictures
that are used, as well as a glossary of terms at the
back.
Any word in the booklet that has a glossary
definition is written in red.
It may be useful for a person to use his or her
first name when reading it, instead of “you”.
Larger versions of the illustrations used here can
be found on the Christian Horizons internal web
pages.
When this booklet was written, it was sent to a
variety of people within Christian Horizons;
including people who receive service, and people
who provide service. All feedback received was
considered before the Quality Assurance Team
at Christian Horizons Corporate Office created
this final version.
4

1. What is the Charter?
The Charter is there to protect your basic
rights and freedoms from the actions of the
government.
Parliament: where the Canadian government
does its work
If the government passes a law, or runs a
program or acts in any way that abuses your
rights, the Charter protects you.
5

2. What are your equality rights?
Laws and government programs
must apply to you in the same
way that they apply to other
people. You may not be treated
differently because of your race,
national or ethnic origin, colour,
religion, sex, age, or mental or
physical disability.
Programs that treat
people differently to
help people in
disadvantaged groups
achieve equality are
allowed.
6

3. What are your legal rights?
If you speak a
different language,
Interpreter
or you are deaf,
Interpreter
you must be allowed to have an interpreter
when you are involved in a legal proceeding.
7

The government cannot threaten your life,
liberty, or security of the person.
No one can search or
take your property
without good reason to
do so.
Property
No one can put you in
prison without good
reason.
Prison
8

If you are arrested or put in jail...
Jail
…the police must tell you why you have been
arrested or put in jail,
Arrest
9

you are allowed to talk
to a lawyer immediately
[right away],
Lawyer talking to someone in jail
and you are
allowed to have a
Court decide if you
should be released
[let go].
A trial in Court
If you are charged with an
offence, the police must tell
you why you have been charged
immediately [right away],
10
Police Officer

you don’t have to wait a long time for a trial;
you don’t need to speak at your own trial,
Lawyers speaking for a person
A person speaking
for herself
you are innocent until the Court says that you
are guilty,
and you may not be denied bail without cause
[without a reason].
Someone paying bail to get a person out of jail
11

You may go to trial
in front of a jury if
the punishment you
are facing is five
years or more.
Jury listening in Court
You are innocent if the thing you are accused
of was not illegal when you did it.
Once a court decides that you are innocent or
guilty, you cannot be charged for the same
act again.
Judge in court, deciding if someone is guilty
12

The Government cannot treat or punish you in
a cruel or unusual way.
Cruel punishment- this person is locked in
a hole in the ground, not a proper prison
If you are a witness at a trial, nothing you say
can be used against you by the government
unless you have lied.
13

4. What are your fundamental
freedoms?
You are free to form your own opinions and
express them to others, unless the way that
you express yourself is harmful to other
people.
People expressing opinions
People are free to report the
news,
or express an opinion
on television,
14

or in newspapers
and magazines,
without being told what to say or not to say,
as long as they are not harming other people.
You are free to
hold peaceful
meetings,
A peaceful meeting
A protest march
marches or rallies in
private or public
places, as long as no
laws are broken in
doing so.
15

5. What are your mobility rights?
If you are a Canadian citizen, you may enter
[come into], remain [stay] in, or leave the
country [Canada] as you choose.
An airplane flying out of
the country
Crossing the border
If you are a Canadian citizen, you also have
the right to live and work in any province of
your choice as long as you follow that
province’s laws.
Different provinces in Canada
16

Map of Canada
Source:
http://atlas.nrcan.gc.ca/site/english/maps/reference/national/can_political_e/referencemap
_image_view
Some residency requirements will apply for
some government programs, for example New
Brunswick social services [money and help
from the government] would not be available
to a person living in Ontario [where you live].
[A person from one province can’t use
services from another province.]
17

6. What are your democratic
rights?
If you are eighteen years old or older and a
Canadian citizen, you have the right to vote in
elections.
A person marks who they vote for on a paper called a ballot…
and then puts it in a box to be counted.
18

7. What are your language rights?
If you are receiving any information or
services from the Government of Canada, or
the Government of New Brunswick [another
province in Canada that is different from
Ontario, where you live], you may receive
them in French or in English.
Image adapted from http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/indexeng.php
English service
Image adapted from http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/dhpmps/medeff/index-fra.php
French service
19

Glossary
Abuse: to hurt someone by treating him or
her in a bad way. If someone does something
that makes you feel uncomfortable, show or
tell someone you trust.
Act: something that you do.
Accuse: to say that someone has done
something wrong or illegal.
Apply: to be related to or to matter to you.
Arrest: to stop and hold someone for
breaking the law.
Bail: money left with a court of law to make
sure that a person will appear in court.
Border: the line between two countries.
Canadian Citizen: a person who is a member of
Canada because of being born there or being
accepted as a member by law.
20

Charge: to say that someone did something
against the law.
Community: the neighbourhood or city outside
of your house.
Country: a large area of land where people live
under the same government.
Court: the judges or other people who hear
and decide if a person has broken the law.
Cruel: willing to cause pain or suffering; not
caring if you hurt someone.
Deny: to say no to.
Disability: something about you that makes
you not able to do everything.
• Mental disability: something about your
mind or brain that makes you not able to
do everything.
• Physical disability: something about your
body that makes you not able to do
everything.
21

Disadvantage: something that makes it hard
for a person to succeed or do well.
Election: choosing a person to be in
government by voting.
Equality: being given the same rights as
everyone else.
Ethnic Origin: the group of people someone
comes from, that shares language and culture.
Express: to let other people know your
thoughts and feelings by saying, writing or
showing.
Freedom: being able to act or move as you
wish.
Fundamental: basic, something that you need.
Government: the group of people that has
power to make laws and important decisions
for a community, province, or country.
Guilty: responsible for breaking a law or doing
something wrong.
22

Harm: hurt or injury.
Illegal: against the law or rules.
Innocent: not guilty of an offence.
Interpreter: someone who helps you to
understand.
Jail: a building where people who have broken
the law are kept. It can also be called prison.
Judge: a person whose job is to hear and
decide things about the law.
Jury: a group of adults (people your age) who
decide in court if a person is guilty or not
guilty.
Language: the words, signs or pictures that a
group of people uses to tell things to each
other.
Law: any one rule that a government makes
and that people must follow.
Lawyer: a person whose job it is to give advice
about laws and to speak for people in court.
23

Legal Proceeding: something that happens
that has to do with the law.
Life: the time between being born and dying.
Liberty: the right or power to act and choose
freely.
March: to walk together with a large group of
people.
Meeting: a gathering of people.
Mobility: being able to move from place to
place.
National: belonging to one country.
Offence: the act of breaking a law or rule, or
doing something wrong.
Opinion: what you think about something or
somebody.
Peaceful: without fighting.
Police: people who protect everyone and their
property and make sure everyone obeys the
law.
24

Political Party: a group of people who share
the same opinions and ideas about
government.
Prison: a locked building for holding people
who have broken the law. It can also be called
jail.
Private: something that you don’t show or tell
anyone unless you need to or want to.
Property: everything that belongs to you.
Protest: to say that you disagree or are angry
about something.
Province: A part of Canada that contains many
towns and cities.
Public: having to do with all the people in a
community.
Punishment: causing someone to experience
something bad after they’ve done something
wrong.
Religion: what you believe about God, life and
death.
25

Report: to tell or show a story about
something that has happened.
Rights: something that you are allowed to do
because you are a person, or because of the
law.
Search: to try to find something by looking
for it.
Security: freedom from fear or danger;
safety.
Services: work that a person, an agency (like
Christian Horizons) or a government does for
other people.
Sex: what makes you a man or woman, or a boy
or girl.
Treat: the way a person acts towards
someone.
Trial: is how a court decides whether someone
is guilty of breaking a law or not.
26

Vote: to make a choice as part of a group
decision. Votes are counted to see what most
people want.
Witness: a person who sees or hears
something that happened.
All definitions were taken from or modified from http://new.wordsmyth.net/.
27