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The Preservation of Civil Liberties

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 November 2014

H. McD. Clokie
H. McD. Clokie*
Affiliation:
The University of Manitoba
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Extract

The historic controversy over the “rights of the subject” has again come into public prominence and gives evidence of being here to stay for a considerable period. The occasion of the new interest in the topic was apparently the notable departure from customary procedures in the espionage cases, but once attention was directed to the issue additional grounds for grave anxiety were found in the treatment of Jehovah's Witnesses in the province of Quebec. It would be a mistake, however, to consider that these particular examples of the invasion of civil liberties reveal a novel form of arbitrary conduct in Canadian government. The essential conditions of the situation have been present in most parts of the country for many years, though generally unobserved and unchallenged. Indeed, the current alarm might easily have been dissipated and the recent events might have been a warning only to the most sensitive if those responsible had expressed the least nominal regret at their mistakes.

Type
Articles
Information
Canadian Journal of Economics and Political Science/Revue canadienne de economiques et science politique , Volume 13 , Issue 2 , May 1947 , pp. 208 - 232
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Political Science Association 1947

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References

1 The new citizenship law evoked quite misdirected enthusiasm because it was expected to accomplish something or other with respect to individual equality. Many recent immigrants were under the delusion that they could, by virtue of the magic word “citizen,” throw off some of the social handicaps experienced by themselves and their children. But if they were “naturalized,” European immigrants and their children born in this country already had equality before the law.

The effects of the new legislation have been grievously over-rated. On December 31, 1946, British subjects resident in Canada fell into three classes: privileged, under-privileged, and unprivileged. After January 1, 1947, the same persons fall into two categories: privileged and unprivileged.

It is quite proper to establish a citizenship for international purposes or even for census records; but this had already been done twenty-five and thirty-five years before when Canadian nationality was defined. For internal Canadian purposes, the sole result of the citizenship act is to remove one class of under-privileged nationals.