Liberals, Rights, and Privileges..

The Conservative Government is seeking to emulate Australia to some degree in dealing with illegal immigrants.  To stem the growing number of human beings being smuggled into Canada - they are seeking to pass new legislation that will allow them to hold these people brought to our shores in cargo containers from places like Sri Lanka for up to one year - making it much less attractive to those who would pay smugglers significant fees to try and illegally enter Canada.

As a lawyer, I see first hand, almost daily, the mish-mash of rhetoric and inconsistency inherent in the patchwork quilt which is the Canadian judicial system.

Words, once somewhat innocuous, at the urging of lawyers and judges become pillars of power - and impact significantly upon those to whom our laws apply.

Two such words are "rights" and "privileges".

And their application in this Country is somewhat interesting and more than a little troubling.

For example.

Driving a motor vehicle.

If you asked most non-lawyers how important having access to a vehicle is to their fundamental ability to carry out their lives, and in many cases, their fundamental ability to retain their employment - I daresay most Canadians would say that driving a vehicle comes in, not too distantly, behind eating and breathing.

In a country as broad and dispersed as Canada, having access to a vehicle for our daily needs is akin to the need for a good horse a few generations ago.

However, it is trite law in Canada now that driving a vehicle is a "privilege" and not a "right".

And, as such, we now are subject to suspensions of drivers' licenses simply because we are suspected of a crime, before even being permitted to appear before a Judge, or because we are suspected of not paying child support - in some cases without even judicial power to immediately reinstate drivers' licenses in the case of errors and mistakes by maintenance enforcement offices (and the mistakes, as any family lawyer will tell you, are frequent and never-ending).

On the other hand, thanks to the Liberal government, in 1977 with the sweep of a pen they created the perplexing legal gymnastics of declaring that, to qualified applicants, the acquisition of citizenship to Canada by prospective immigrants is NOT a privilege.. but is a "right".

Why is that significant?

Well, because if you don't live in the GTA, and don't have access to mass-transit - your ability to keep a job, your ability to travel from your farm to buy food to feed your family - is subject to being taken away from you without any entitlement to due process or the application of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

However - if you are an illegal immigrant, being smuggled into Canada - you have the full range of rights under our Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and, no doubt, this will figure strongly in the Conservative effort to prevent smuggling of human beings into Canada.

Anyway.. strikes me that we're going down a dangerous road in this country.. where more and more the rights of Canadians are being diluted with haste, and the interests of those who do not live here and pay taxes are being strengthened every day.