April 17, 2002
Ottawa, Ontario

On April 17, 1982, in an address to the people of Canada from Parliament Hill the Right Honourable Pierre Elliott Trudeau, proclaiming the Canadian Charter of Right and Freedoms said: "We are celebrating not so much the completion of our task but the renewal of our hope, not so much an ending but a fresh beginning."

We have come together today to mark twenty years of renewal. To celebrate hopes that have been fulfilled. To mark what is, in many ways, just the end of the beginning.

For many contemporary historians the entrenchment of the Charter is linked closely with the personality and intellect of Mr. Trudeau. And in many respects this is true.

Creating the Charter marked the end of a personal and political journey that began with his landmark 1967 speech as Minister of Justice to the Canadian Bar Association. Where he made the proposition that "the power of both the federal government and the provincial governments be restrained in favour of the Canadian citizen who would, as a consequence, be better protected in the exercise of his fundamental rights and freedoms."

But it would be an oversimplification to conclude that we have a Charter today because of the force and intellect of one leader.

We have a Charter today because of the people of Canada wanted one.

They wanted our fundamental law to reflect and protect our fundamental values and identity: freedom; equality; the special place of the English and French languages and of Aboriginal peoples in our national story; our modern multicultural reality; the principle of sharing prosperity and opportunity.

Canadians were ready for a Charter. They were ready to be bold. It is as simple as that. The genius of Mr. Trudeau was in sensing this desire among our people and seizing the moment.

The surest mark of the success of the Charter was not its entrenchment. But the energetic way that Canadians have since embraced and made use of it. To expand the frontiers of equality. To challenge age-old prejudices and practices.

It is true that the impact of the Charter has and continues to provoke debate in many quarters. That is as it should be. We must never be complacent about the meaning of freedom and equality. We must always be willing as a society not only to talk the talk but to walk the walk.

As with so many of the landmark events that have defined our history and development as a nation there was a good deal of drama and debate surrounding the Charter. As Minister of Justice at the time I remember it well.

How times have changed .

I have noted in some of the media coverage of this 20th anniversary mention of the sense that Canadians now take the Charter for granted. In my judgment this is a good thing. It tells me that the Charter has become a settled part of our national life.

One that reaffirms the fact that Canadians, in all provinces and territories, define their citizenship in terms much grander than their passport, their language or their region. They define it in terms of the fundamental qualities and rights they possess as human beings. Rights that trump those of any government.

As such the entrenchment the Charter is the most profoundly democratic declaration in our history. And the achievement not of a Prime Minister or a government but of a great and just people.

The people of Canada.

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