Canadian Charter Of Rights And Freedoms

Freedoms, rights, and responsibilities are similar in the sense that all three are things that every citizen of Canada has.
A freedom is “the power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants without hindrance or restraint”.
The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms guarantees certain freedoms for all citizens of Canada.
These freedoms include freedom of conscience and religion, and freedom of association. A right is a legal or natural entitlement to have or to do something, or to act in a certain way. Rights in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights include the right to life, liberty, and security of the person, the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each state, and the right to leave any country, including
their own, and to return to their country. Rights are often fought for and claimed by people who take action when they believe that they are being treated unfairly. A responsibility is “the state or fact of having a duty to deal with something or of having control over someone”. In Canada, rights come with responsibilities such as obeying the law, voting in elections, and serving on a jury.
A freedom and a right are different as a freedom may be a fundamental human right or the ability to express rights, while a right is not a freedom.
Legal rights are something that can’t be given to you then taken away later and there is a legal duty to see that these rights are honoured. However, unlike rights, no one has the legal duty to oversee or enforce freedoms.
Like rights, freedoms are different than responsibilities. Freedoms from an existential perspective can’t be separated from responsibilities and a freedom requires responsibility from the bearer. With more freedom, comes more responsibility. When we’re younger, we have little freedom and little responsibility. When we get older, we become more responsible and gain more freedom as well. Freedoms give you the power or right to make your own decisions without being restricted, but with those decisions can come consequences which are your responsibility to bear.
Rights are related to and frequently overlap with responsibilities but the two terms are not interchangeable. An example of how they overlap is voting, which is both a right and a
responsibility.
While rights are entitlements, responsibilities are obligations or duties that are either assigned to you or assumed by you. With rights come responsibilities. An example of this is that you have the right to freedom of expression and could say that all first and second generation immigrants should go back to their own countries. However, you have the responsibility of respecting Canada’s multicultural heritage as well as respecting the rights and freedoms of others. In this scenario, your responsibilities should come before your rights. In conclusion, freedoms, rights, and responsibilities may share similarities but they have distinct differences as well.

A right is a legal or natural entitlement to have something or do something. Rights are often fought for and claimed by someone or a group of people that take action when they believe that they are being treated unfairly.
Rights do not only apply to individuals as in addition to rights that individual Canadians have, groups of individuals who share common, unchangeable features may have group rights.
Group rights are specific rights that are separate from individual rights. Those with group rights also have individual rights. These groups have group rights as their individual rights are abused or there is a pattern of discrimination against them as a group and they are not always treated fairly or equally. These groups include ethnic minorities, women, children, people with disabilities, etc. The government protects group rights through specific laws and policies. An example is accessibility laws such as the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, 2005 which is to recognize discrimination against those with disabilities in Ontario, and develop, implement, and enforce standards for accessibility related to goods, services, facilities, employment, accommodation, and
buildings.
Many of the rights we have today in both Canada and universally come from centuries of the struggle, persistence, and sacrifice from others. Prominent examples of events/ movements by those who believed that the way they were being treated was unjust include the African-American Civil Rights Movement, and the Stonewall riots which are considered to be the event that sparked the gay liberation movement and more recent movements for LGBTQ+ rights in the United States.
The African-American Civil Rights Movement, or the 1960s Civil Rights Movement, were social movements in the United States whose goals were to end racial segregation, racism against black people, and secure full civil rights. They also protested against white supremacy, which is the belief that white people are superior to all other races. White supremacy still exists today with well known white supremacists including Donald Trump and the KKK. The 1960s Civil Rights Movement took place from 1954-1968 and in 1968, the Civil Rights Act of 1968, also known as the Fair Housing Act, is a piece of legislation that made it a federal crime to “by force or threat of force willfully injures, intimidates or interferes with, or attempts to injure, intimidate or interfere with… any person because of their race, color, religion or national origin” and prohibited discrimination concerning the sale, rental, and financing of housing based on race, religion, or national origin. This act was only made possibly by the actions and sacrifice of/by hundreds of thousands of black people in the United States, with the support of some non-black people.