To the Editor:
I read with interest 'Property rights at risk at border', by Joseph Quesnel, and 'CWB, tyranny and economics' by Herb Pinder, in the StarPhoenix August 17, 2012.
Many legal problems are arising in Canada from Pierre Trudeau's refusal to include our individual civil right to own property into the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. This allowed the truck belonging to Edwin and Alison Morris to be confiscated by Canadian border officials.
The Charter does not protect them from having their property taken away by the state. They are denied their rights to presumption of innocence, due process or even any compensation for their truck. A serious 'civil rights deficit' exists within Canada and provides the impetus for our governments (federal and provincial) to enact laws allowing them to seize and keep citizens property without needing to prove that a crime was committed by the property owner, and without having to show that any crime was ever committed.
Although Canadians have the right to own property, the government suppresses it. Canada the govt. correctly argued that our right is not specifically written into the Charter. This is how the Charter is used to screen so many of our civil rights from us. Of these, our right to own property, is one of the oldest, most fundamental and powerful civil rights we have. Although currently prohibited by our federal and provincial governments through their many rights infringing laws, our civil rights never expire or cease to exist.
This right was designed to protect an individual's property against state deprivation like what the Morrises encounter. The right to private property can be traced back to the Magna Carta (1215), the English Bill of Rights (1689) John Locke's Second Treatise (1690), Blacktstone's Commentaries on the Laws of England (1765-1769) and The Canadian Bill of Rights(1960).
We in Canada adopted the civil rights contained within these famous legal documents through the preamble of our Constitution. At least three ways exist as a remedy for Canadians to regain function of our 'Charter excluded' civil rights. For example, if Prime Minister Harper were to keep a Conservative party promise and amend the Canadian Constitution to include our individual property right or if the Supreme Court were to deliver a Charter challenge decision striking down property rights infringing legislation (such as those abusing the Morrises) and re-affirming our civil right to private property or provincially, Premier Brad Wall could fulfill a Sask Party policy of 2010 which calls for amending 'the current Saskatchewan Human Rights Code to enshrine the individual's Right to own property.
Joe Gingrich, Nipawin, SK.
