Book Review: Canada: Civil Liberties in Canada
| Author | Andrew Brewin |
| Published date | 01 December 1964 |
| Date | 01 December 1964 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/002070206401900420 |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
570
INTERNATIONAL
JOURNAL
Civ
LIBERTIES
IN
CANADA.
By
D.
A.
Schmeiser.
1964.
(Toronto:
Oxford
University
Press.
xviii,
302pp.
$7.50)
There
has
been
a
great
deal
of
interest
recently
in
civil
liberties
in
Canada.
The
resignation
of
Mr.
Cass
after
the
furore
that
arose out
of
the
proposed
amendments
to
the
Police
Commission
Act
in
Ontario
is
one
illustration.
The
concern
of
Parliament
about
the
prolonged
deten-
tion
of
would-be
immigrants
is
another.
Professor
Schmeiser's
work
will
therefore
be
received
with
a
great
deal
of
interest,
as
it
fills
a
serious
gap. There
are
few,
if any,
sources
of
Canadian
material
on
the
problems
of
civil
liberties.
This
book,
written
as
a doctoral
thesis
at
the
University
of
Michigan,
gives
a
very
full
account
of
certain
aspects
of
civil
liberties
in
Canada.
Professor
Schmeiser
has
reviewed
the
cases
arising under
the
Bill
of
Rights.
He
has
dealt
in considerable
detail
with questions
of
religious
freedom,
the
development
of
denominational
education,
both before
and
after
Confederation,
cases
relating
to
freedom
of
the
press
and other
"communicative"
freedoms,
and
the related
subjects
of
racial
discrimi-
nation
and
obscenity.
The
author
has
assiduously
collected
relevant
legal authorities.
He
has written
a
most
useful
book
of
reference.
I cannot
express
the
same
enthusiasm
about
some
of
the
conclusions
reached
by
Professor
Schmeiser.
He
reviews
in
detail
the
cases
in
which
the
Canadian
Bill
of
Rights
was
referred
to
and
comes
to
the
conclusion
that
precisely
the
same
results
would
have
been
reached
by
applying
well
established,
common
law
principles.
He
states
that
the
Bill
of
Rights
is
drafted
in
"incredibly
feeble
language".
He
points
out
that
with
two
major
exceptions-the
espionage
investigations and
the
Cana-
dian
Japanese
deportation
at
the
end
of
the
war-the
threats
in
Canada
to
civil
liberties have
nearly
always
come
from
provincial governments,
e.g.,
the
Padlock
Act (Quebec),
the
Accurate
News
and Information
Act
(Alberta),
the
Labour
Legislation
of
Prince Edward
Island
(1948),
Newfoundland
(1959)
and
British
Columbia
(1961).
After
all
this
the
author
comes
to
the extraordinary
conclusion
that
the
present
Bill
of
Rights
is not
as
spectacular
as
a
constitutional
bill
of
rights
but
has
an
over-all
effect
which
might
be
as
durable and
lasting.
The
author's
discussion
of
the
pros
and
cons
of
judicial
review
puts
much
more emphasis
upon
the
disadvantages and limitations
of
effective
judicial
review
than
upon
its
advantage.
I
find
this
strange,
in
the
light
of his
demonstration
of
the
admirable
record
of
the
Supreme
Court
of
Canada
in
this
field.
Indeed,
the
author's
stress
upon
the
Canadian
Bill
of
Rights
does
far
too
little
justice
to
the
effective
role
played by
the
courts
long
before
the
Bill
of
Rights was
put
on
the
statute
books.
Professor
Schmeiser
ignores
the
difficult
question
of
"security
risks"
and
the
discouragement
of
unorthodox
opinions
in
both
public
and
private
business. The
sorry
record
in
immigration
proceedings
also
passes
unnoticed.
Some
of
the
recommendations
are worth
while,
some
are
highly
questionable
and,
taken altogether,
they
seem
to
the
reviewer
at
least,
pathetically inadequate.
The
urgent
need
for
a
Constitutional
Bill of
Rights
is
ignored.
This,
of
course,
is
consistent
with
the
author's
strange
predilection
for
the
present
quite
useless
Act
of
Parliament.
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