Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms

In 1982, the Parliament of the United Kingdom, at the request of the Dominion of Canada, renamed the British North America Act, 1867 as the Constitution Act, 1867, and at the same time passed the Canada Act of 1982, attaching to the latter Schedule A, the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms (the Charter). Prior to the existence of the Charter, citizens' rights and freedoms were derived through statute or common law, which was subject to the supremacy of the provincial legislatures to make laws with respect to education. The Charter provides Canadian school boards, teachers, students, and parents with the opportunity to use the Charter's constitutional rights as both a sword and shield in civil litigation, notwithstanding provincial legislation or common law which appear ...