NEWS RELEASE
July
29, 2003
For Immediate Release
SUPREME COURT RULED: CANADIANS HAVE NO PROPERTY RIGHTS
“Anything
you own can be expropriated without due process and without compensation say the
Supremes.”
Yorkton
– Today, Garry
Breitkreuz, Official Opposition Critic for Firearms and Property Rights,
denounced a Supreme Court decision saying that the government has the power to
take anyone’s property without due process and without compensation simply by
passing an “unambiguous” law. “We
have just lost one of our most important freedoms necessary for the existence of
a truly free and democratic society. The
right to life and the right to property go hand-in-hand – you can’t have one
without the other. When Parliament
resumes sitting in September, Canadian Alliance will be introducing a motion
calling for property rights to be entrenched in the Charter of Rights and
Freedoms,” promised Breitkreuz.
What
got Breitkreuz so riled was the Supreme Court’s July 17th judgment
in the class-action suit Authorson v. Canada in which the Supremes ruled
in favour of the federal government and against mentally disabled war veterans
(see supporting documentation). The government amended the Veteran Affairs
Act to avoid paying hundreds of millions in interest on pension benefits the
government had held in trust for about 30,000 veterans.
The Supreme Court ruled: “Parliament has the right to expropriate
property, even without compensation, if it has made its intention clear and, in
s. 5.1(4), Parliament's expropriative intent is clear and unambiguous.”
The
Supreme Court ruling also stated: “Lastly, while substantive rights may
stem from due process, the Bill of Rights does not protect against the
expropriation of property by the passage of unambiguous legislation.”
Breitkreuz
asked, “So if the property rights guarantees in the Canadian Bill of Rights
don’t protect an individual’s fundamental property rights, what good are
they? They even ruled that the Bill
of Rights ‘does not impose on Parliament the duty to provide a hearing
before the enactment of legislation.’ Once
again, we have a court ruling – this one by the highest court in the land -
that demonstrates an urgent need for my Private Members’ Bill C-313 (see
supporting documentation) calling for amendments to strengthen the property
rights protection in the Canadian Bill of Rights.
If my bill were law, at least the Liberals would have to get a
two-thirds majority in the House to pass any law that runs roughshod over our
property rights,” explained Breitkreuz. “This
first step in property rights protection in federal law is required while we are
trying to convince seven provinces with 50% of the population to approve our
proposed constitutional amendment to entrench property rights in the Charter.”
“This
Supreme Court ruling means that the Liberals can simply ram a law through
Parliament giving themselves the right and the power to confiscate each and
every bit of Canadian-owned property falling under federal law without paying a
dime in compensation to the legal owners,” warned Breitkreuz.
“This Supreme Court ruling should raise concerns for all Canadians
over their ability to enjoy their own property including the fruits of their
labour. What more evidence do you
need that Liberals are undoing everything our ancestors fought for, for hundreds
of years?"
“This
wasn’t just another bad ruling by the Supreme Court. A free and democratic society needs to have the best
protection of property rights or else all is at risk.
We must entrench property rights in the Canadian Charter of Rights and
Freedoms as the Canadian Alliance has repeatedly called for.”
-30-
SUPPORTING
DOCUMENTATION
Authorson
v. Canada (Attorney General) - July 17, 2003
Neutral
citation: 2003 SCC 39 - File No.:
29207
ON APPEAL FROM THE COURT OF APPEAL FOR ONTARIO
http://www.canlii.org/ca/cas/scc/2003/2003scc39.html
BREITKREUZ
BILL C-313 - An Act to amend An Act for the
Recognition and Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms and to amend
the Constitution Act, 1867: