Rights and Responsibilities of Citizenship

Canadian citizens have rights and responsibilities. They are secured by Canadian Charter. The Constitution of Canada was amended in 1982 to entrench the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Canadian law has several sources, including laws passed by Parliament and the provincial legislatures, English common law, the civil code of the French, and an those inherited from the British colonisation.

Together, these secure for Canadians an a tradition of liberty, which dates back to the signing of Magna Carta in 1215 in England, including:

• Freedom of thought, belief, opinion and expression;
• Freedom of peaceful assembly; and
• Freedom of association.

Habeas corpus, the right to challenge unlawful detention by the state, comes from English common law.