Canada
Canada is a stable, high-performing democracy. After undergoing a major constitutional revision in 1982, Canada has had very strong constitutional protections of fundamental rights, and an embrace of multiculturalism as one of the guiding values of its legal and political systems. The country is also one of the world’s most advanced economies and has been a member of the Group of Seven (G7) since 1976. However, in the last five years there have been declines – albeit from a high starting point – in a number of indicators of the Global State of Democracy Indices (GSoDI), most notably Effective Parliament and Predictable Enforcement.
Canada’s embrace of multiculturalism is one of its national strengths, but its centrality also highlights some of the enduring fault lines in the country’s political system. The nineteenth and much of the twentieth centuries were partly characterized by successive governments’ failure to address the negative treatment of Indigenous peoples at the federal and provincial levels. This has included violations of First Nations’ treaty rights, exclusion from political participation, and even acts that may amount to cultural genocide. A further lasting division from the colonial period is between Anglophone and Francophone Canadians. The Francophone province of Quebec has been recognized as a nation within Canada (a declaration without legal effects), but the appropriate legal measures to accommodate this difference have never been settled. A third cleavage in Canadian politics is between the western provinces (in particular the Prairie provinces) and the centre of the country. This has become even more politically salient in recent years as the federal government has sought to address climate change, while the western province of Alberta’s economy relies to a large extent on the extraction and sale of fossil fuels. These divisions are likely to continue to drive Canadian politics in the coming years.
The fundamentals of democracy are quite sound in Canada. Nonetheless, the trends in Effective Parliament and Predictable Enforcement should be tracked in the coming years. These declines reflect tensions in Canada’s political institutions, highlighted by controversies in recent years around the independence of the Attorney General from political pressure and apparent political vetting of judicial candidates. The decline in Predictable Enforcement alongside a slight drop in Access to Justice reflects an increasing backlog of criminal and civil cases in provincial and federal courts.
Despite the declines, minority governments have been increasingly common in the Canadian parliament (five of the last ten parliaments), and generally offer opposition parties more power to hold the government to account. Additionally, the increased public attention to the judicial appointments process and the efficiency of the justice system provides an opportunity for reform in this important area of rights protection.
Monthly Event Reports
January 2024 | Court rules against government regarding use of Emergencies Act
A ruling by a federal court has stated that the government’s use of the Emergencies Act to respond to the “Freedom Convoy” protests in 2022 was unreasonable and contrary to protesters’ rights. According to the federal judge’s decision, in a case brought by the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, the Canadian Constitution Foundation, and two interested parties who had their bank accounts frozen on the basis of the Act, no national emergency justified its use. The ruling contradicts the findings of the Rouleau Commission, a public inquiry mandated to investigate the use of the Emergencies Act, which concluded in February 2023 that the threshold needed for that effect had been met. The government has stated it will appeal the federal court’s decision.
November 2023 | Amid a rise in hate crimes, a synagogue and Jewish community centre are targeted
An increase in hate crimes in Canada has been recorded since the October escalation of violence between Hamas and Israel. In Montreal, Molotov cocktails were set alight outside a synagogue and a Jewish community centre, and gunfire was reportedly directed against two empty Jewish schools. According to Montreal Police, since 7 October and as of early November, 48 hate incidents targeting the Jewish community had been recorded, as well as 17 hate incidents targeting the Arab-Muslim community. This constitutes a significant increase, given that during all last year, 238 incidents were recorded in total. Clashes and tension between pro-Palestinian and pro-Israel protesters have also been reported, including in Montreal’s Concordia University, where a student was injured, and another charged with assault.
June 2023 | Online News Act becomes law
On 22 June the Online News Act became law. According to the government, the Act aims to ensure a fair distribution of revenue between news sites and social media and online platforms (the latter would have to pay news organizations when their content is accessed on online platforms). As explained by the government, journalism lost major revenue streams from advertising to online platforms. It further claims that the Act will also facilitate the relationship between news media outlets and social media platforms, as well as strengthen media freedom. Because of the financial implications to their operations, Meta and Google have announced that they will cease providing Canadian news content on their websites. This reaction has been criticised, given the proportion of Canadians who access news through social media (social media comes in third after the internet and television). In response, the Canadian government said it would stop advertising on Facebook and Instagram.
May 2023 | Parliament calls on rapporteur on foreign interference to resign
On 31 May, by 174 to 150 votes, Parliament voted to call on David Johnston, the rapporteur on foreign interference appointed by Prime Minister Trudeau’s government, to resign, given the opposition’s claims that he was not impartial after he recommended a series of hearings instead of a public inquiry on the allegations of foreign meddling in elections. According to Johnston, a public inquiry is not possible due to the classified nature of the information that led him to conclude that foreign officials attempted to interfere with candidates. Instead, he suggested hearings on the way in which the intelligence agencies communicated this information to other government institutions. The lawmakers’ motion, which is non-binding, was presented after criticism of the rapporteur’s alleged partiality, given reports of his personal ties to Prime Minister Trudeau. While Johnston initially rejected the call to resign and insisted he has not had a personal relationship with the PM in decades, in early June he presented a letter of resignation, in which he stated he would leave the role of rapporteur by the end of the month.
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GSoD Indices Data 2013-2022
Basic Information
Human Rights Treaties
Global State of Democracy Indices
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Factors of Democratic Performance Over Time
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