WAGNER: Is God in the Charter of Rights?

Many people point to the mention of God in the preamble to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms as evidence of Canada’s Christian character.So, are they right? Is God really there?Well, yes . . . and no. The actual letters G-o-d are in the preamble, but that word means different things to judges than it does to most people.This is very confusing but it’s important to understand.Prior to 1982 there was no mention of God in the constitution. But during the period of constitutional wrangling in the early 1980s, the question of God’s standing in the document became an issue.During 1981, federal hearings were held to determine what should be included in Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau’s proposed constitutional revisions. Some evangelical Christians wanted an explicit reference to God in the constitution and there were Progressive Conservative MPs sympathetic to the idea.The PC constitutional critic, Jake Epp, had close ties to evangelical groups and was especially supportive. He proposed an amendment to include a reference to God, but it was blocked by the Liberals. NDP MP Svend Robinson was especially outspoken in opposing it.Then the evangelicals became particularly active.TV preacher David Mainse appealed to his audience to write politicians to press for the reference to God and Baptist evangelist Ken Campbell took out full-page ads in leading daily newspapers with a similar message. The Evangelical Fellowship of Canada also campaigned for it.But according to historian George Egerton, the most important factor in convincing the Liberal government to accept a reference to God in the new constitution was the efforts of Ontario MP David Smith, the Liberal Deputy House Leader.Smith was the son of a Pentecostal minister and he prepared a brief for Trudeau advocating for the reference to God.As Egerton writes, “Smith’s brief summarized polling and political reporting on the moral majority phenomenon in the United States and demographic data on recent Canadian religious trends that held political salience.”This information showed that the conservative segments of Christianity were growing while the liberal churches were declining. Thus, Smith warned that the Liberals would “pay for this politically for years” if they failed to include a reference to God in the constitution.In other words, they would lose evangelical voters who appeared to constitute a growing segment of the voting population.According to Egerton, “The political considerations raised by David Smith and other Christian Liberals were convincing for the prime minister and the Liberals inserted their own reference to God in the amendments to the draft constitution.”As a result, the preamble to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms now reads, “Whereas Canada is founded upon principles that recognize the supremacy of God and the rule of law.”Nevertheless, the effect of the Charter has not been the strengthening but rather the weakening of Canada’s Christian heritage.This is evident in various judicial decisions such as the striking down of the Lord’s Day Act (1985), prayer and Bible reading being expelled from public schools (1988) and the overturning of Canada’s traditional definition of marriage (2003).If God is supreme — as the preamble states — then why do Charter decisions strike down Christian policies rather than uphold them? This seems like a contradiction.The problem is that people assume the “God” mentioned in the Charter is the God of the Bible. Unfortunately, this is not the case.Section 27 of the Charter states, “This Charter shall be interpreted in a manner consistent with the preservation and enhancement of the multicultural heritage of Canadians.”That is, the entire document is to be read in light of our “multicultural heritage,” not our Christian heritage.Since that “multicultural heritage” includes people from all sorts of beliefs and religions, the mention of “God” refers to an entity that can be accepted by all of these different cultures and religions. It is a multicultural god — a god supposedly suited for all religions — not the Judaeo-Christian God.This understanding of the preamble was demonstrated in the first Supreme Court of Canada ruling to deal with religion under the Charter, the Big M Drug Mart decision of 1985.The Supreme Court wrote that, “The evolution of Canada as a pluralistic, multicultural society, as well as the reference to ‘God’ rather than to an identifiably Christian conception of God can have no bearing either on the characterization of laws aimed at enforcing specifically Christian observances nor on the classification of such legislation as being within Parliament’s criminal law power.”Here the court contrasted “God” in the Charter with “an identifiably Christian conception of God.”Clearly, in the court’s determination, the “God” of the Charter is not the Judaeo-Christian God.In a 1999 decision of the British Columbia Court of Appeal, R. v. Sharpe, the reference to God in the Charter was dismissed as having no legal relevance whatsoever. The judge in that case said the Charter’s “supremacy of God” phrase was “a dead letter.”So, there you have it. Yes, the letters G-o-d appear in the Charter’s preamble but they don’t mean what most people think.This is very disappointing, of course. The Christians who campaigned to have God included in the constitution undoubtedly thought they had accomplished something worthwhile for the country.But it’s important to remember that the Charter of Rights was Pierre Trudeau’s baby right from the very beginning. His acceptance of God in the preamble was simply a crass political move to obtain support from evangelicals, who appeared to constitute a growing block of voters.In other words, Trudeau threw them a bone to get support for his constitutional package. It worked. Trudeau was able to change the constitution to include a Charter of Rights that would soon be used to uproot Canada’s Christian heritage — something clearly not anticipated by the evangelicals.Pierre Trudeau won again and he keeps on winning with almost every Charter decision.He truly is the father of modern Canada.

WAGNER: Is God in the Charter of Rights?

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