O O Ø O O O O
A New Bill of Rights
The Right Honourable Stephen Harper
Office of the Prime Minister
80 Wellington Street
Ottawa K1A 0A2
Dear Mr. Harper:
My daughter’s diapers have taken odour to a new place I never knew existed. They now occupythe rank air between staleness and the smell you encounter when you scrape the dead moths and tar out of a compressor station’s sumps. Yes, stale moths and tar is the best way I can describe it.
While I’m on the subject of unpleasant tasks, I would like to bring up constitutional negotiations. Like Eloise’s diaper, the constitution is something that needs changing. Leaving aside for this letter the problem of the senate, we specifically need to write a Bill of Rights.
The important thing to remember about a constitutional Bill of Rights, Mr. Harper, is that it does not delineate what citizens are entitled to do. They describe what the government is allowed to do. Most importantly, those powers the government isn’t expressly granted in the Bill of Rights, are forbidden to it.
What passes for our Bill of Rights—the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms—doesn’t fit this bill at all. (And our actual Bill of Rights is an emasculated statute that has no constitutional standing.) By describing how government largesse cannot be denied to supplicants on the basis of religion, orientation, language or beliefs,the Charter has created the legal framework for a generation of entitlement, supported by a an overreaching and unrestrained federal government.
Mr. Harper, the government is already sufficiently skilled at throwing around money without the need for support from the Charter.
Here is the entirety of the Bill of Rights with which I am proposing to replace the Charter of Rights of Freedoms:
- Parliament is granted the power to pass laws to protect individuals’ property rights from transgression from parties foreign or domestic.
Pithy, isn’t it?
I also propose adding the following:
- Parliament shall pass no law concerning matters outside Canada’s borders.
This is to really cement the meaning of my letter about Afghanistan, and to ensure Ottawa can’t overstep its bounds in the pursuit of the first point.
Maybe one line, to drive home the point:
- Everything else is forbidden of parliament. This means you.
Yes, Mr. Harper, I’m a republican. I believe in constitutionally limited government, because I know people are best suited to make decisions for themselves, and unfettered markets are the only way for them to efficiently carry out those decisions.
Mr. Harper, I’m looking for a way to whittle down the size of government until it’s small enough to ride the bus with me to work. That’s why we need to re-open constitutional negotiations.
I’m sure it will be nasty work: Canadians have small appetite for constitutional shenanigans, and a seemingly dormant desire for actual liberty. I’m not asking you to do this though because it will be pleasant, but because you’re my representative in the House of Commons as MP for Calgary Southwest.
Just like it’s my job as father to act Eloise’s diaper needs changing, it’s your job as Prime Minister to act when the constitution is in a similar state.
Evan Spence
September 25, 2007
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September 28th, 2007 at 1:36 pm
The more I deal with our dear PWGSC in a professional capacity the more I am reminded of Kafka. The shame of our oversized government will outlive us.