GOVERNMENT WITHIN FULL RIGHT TO CONFISCATE YOUR PROPERTY
By Garry Breitkreuz, M.P. for Yorkton-Melville – May 2, 2005

As a Canadian citizen, your right to own property is not guaranteed. It sounds outrageous, but it is entirely true. The right to own property was intentionally left out of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms when it was completed and signed by former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau in 1982. Consequently, today Canadians can have their property expropriated by the government and receive nothing in return.

In Canada, you do not have the right to own land, grain, animals, guns, and, as you are reading this, the Liberal government is even proposing to ban your fishing tackle. The government can take away the fruits of your labour, and they don’t even have to compensate you. As unbelievable as this sounds, it has happened already and continues to occur.

Farmers in Saskatchewan, Alberta and Manitoba are not allowed to sell their own wheat to markets other than the Canadian Wheat Board. The rule applies only to prairie producers, not farmers in other provinces. Prairie farmers who have tried to sell their grain to alternate markets have been fined thousands of dollars and even thrown in jail. And even if the Canadian Wheat Board refuses to purchase the grain, that farmer still cannot find another buyer. Our farmers do not have the right to sell or process their own grain which they grow on their own land. So much for economic freedom.

Thousands of home and landowners in Ontario and Quebec had their land confiscated by the government to make way for government projects – the now defunct Mirabel Airport and the National Capital Commission. In the Ontario case, farmers were paid one-third of the market value for their land; however, the National Capital Commission now charges full-market value rent for those lands. It happens all the time, and it is simply because Canadians do not have the right to own or enjoy property or the right to due process of law, or the right to be compensated.

In 2003, the Supreme Court reminded all Canadians that they have no rights whatsoever when the federal government decides to take their property. On July 17, 2003, the Supreme Court delivered its judgment in the class action suit Authorson v. Canada. The Supreme Court ruled in favour of the federal government and against mentally-disabled war veterans.

The government had amended the Veterans Affairs Act to avoid paying hundreds of millions of dollars 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's 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.

If a government will take millions out of the pockets of 30,000 mentally-ill war veterans, what hope does the average citizen have? It is obvious that something needs to be done to protect the rights of citizens to what the government rightfully owes them. This is why I introduced motion M-227, which states: That, in the opinion of the House, the government should ensure that full, just and timely compensation be paid to all persons who are deprived of personal or private property or suffer a loss in value of that property as a result of any government initiative, policy, process, regulation or legislation.

We need to start strengthening the protection of property rights in federal law for all Canadians. It is shocking that in a modern, democratic country like ours, property rights are not protected. Canada is in fine company with the likes of Cuba and Zimbabwe.

Chinese property owners have a better chance of getting full, just and timely compensation for their property rights taken from them by the government. At least property rights are entrenched in the Chinese constitution. But not in Canada's.

China has just recently put this in place and yet, we in Canada do not recognize how important this is in a free and democratic society, based on a market economy. If we want a strong economy, we must put property rights into the Constitution. I, with the support of the entire Conservative Party, will continue the push to provide Canadians with such a fundamental right.

Visit the Property Rights section of Garry’s website to read about his ten-year fight for your rights: http://www.cssa-cila.org/garryb/issues/property.htm