Rights of Canadian Citizens

Canadian citizenship comes with important rights that are protected by law — most importantly, the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, part of Canada's Constitution.

Fundamental freedoms

Everyone in Canada, not only citizens, is protected by fundamental freedoms including:

• Freedom of conscience and religion
• Freedom of thought, belief, opinion, and expression
• Freedom of peaceful assembly
• Freedom of association

Rights specific to citizens

Some rights belong specifically to Canadian citizens:

• The right to vote in federal, provincial, and territorial elections, and to run for political office
• Mobility rights — the right to enter, remain in, and leave Canada, and to move and live anywhere in Canada

Language and equality rights

Canada recognizes English and French as its two official languages, and citizens have the right to deal with the federal government in either language in many circumstances. The Charter also guarantees equality rights, protecting against discrimination. In Canada, men and women are equal under the law, and Canadian society does not extend tolerance to spousal abuse, honour killings, forced marriages, or other gender-based violence — these crimes are severely punished under Canada's criminal laws.

More rights the Charter sets out

Besides the fundamental freedoms, the guide highlights:

• Mobility rights: live and work anywhere in Canada, enter and leave the country freely, and apply for a passport.
• Aboriginal peoples' rights: Charter rights will not adversely affect any treaty or other rights or freedoms of Aboriginal peoples.
• Official language rights and minority language education rights: French and English have equal status in Parliament and throughout the government.
• Multiculturalism: a fundamental characteristic of Canadian heritage and identity.

Where these rights come from

Canadian law has several sources: laws passed by Parliament and the provincial legislatures, English common law, the civil code of France, and the unwritten constitution inherited from Great Britain. Habeas corpus, the right to challenge unlawful detention by the state, comes from English common law.

Together these secure an 800-year tradition of ordered liberty that dates back to Magna Carta, the Great Charter of Freedoms, signed in England in 1215. These freedoms were entrenched in Canadian law when the Constitution of Canada was amended in 1982 to include the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The amended Constitution underlines the importance of religious traditions to Canadian society and the dignity and worth of the human person, opening with the words: "Whereas Canada is founded upon principles that recognize the supremacy of God and the rule of law."