NP View: Canada, Dominion of freedom

Statue of Sir John A. Macdonald in front of Toronto's Queens Park on July 10, 2025. Photo by Peter J. Thompson /National Post

Article content

Freedom is one of the greatest hallmarks of western civilization, but unless it is imperilled it is too often taken for granted. 

Article content

On this coming Canada Day, it is a good idea to reflect on the fact that it is not for nothing that our national anthem proclaims this is “The True North strong and free.” The magnificence of this country has been its ability to incorporate into its national lifeblood almost a thousand years of English history and tradition concerning freedom, while still being able to maintain a certain Canadian uniqueness. 

Article content

Article content

Article content

Canada is so much more than a land of kindness, peacekeeping and health care. It is a kingdom of explorers, entrepreneurs and soldiers that when at its best can sit atop the whole world, enabled by the very freedom baked into this great land.

Article content

Article content

In the 1776 Declaration of Independence, the Americans affirmed they were throwing off the “political bands” of the English to secure their unalienable rights to “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” 

Article content

Such boldness was not in the Canadian nature. The Canadian revolution involved slow and gradual constitutional reform, while respecting our shared heritage with Britain. The upshot was the Constitution Act of 1982. 

Article content

But Canada’s Constitution, the Declaration of Independence and Britain’s Magna Carta of 1215, while all important for proclaiming freedom, were also specific in invoking God. 

Article content

“Whereas Canada is founded upon principles that recognize the supremacy of God and the rule of law,” begins our Constitution. “Know that before God,” says Magna Carta. The Declaration of Independence insists people’s rights were “endowed by their Creator.” 

Article content

Article content

These three momentous documents were recognizing that freedom is not something bestowed by man but granted by the Divine. We talk of freedom being a right when it is, in fact, sacred. 

Article content

Article content

We have exercised that right for so long it is second nature to us, forgetting sometimes that it was at places like Vimy and Dieppe that it was enshrined in blood. So, we should never take it for granted, for danger lies from those in authority and those within society who abhor what we are. 

Article content

Governments, by their nature, like to be in control. Freedom, for those in charge, can be an irritant. No better example of this is the invocation of the Emergencies Act by the Trudeau government. The Ottawa Freedom Convoy was a maddening annoyance that impacted people’s lives, but it was far from a national emergency, as a federal court and appeal court found. 

Article content

Freedom of expression is a fundamental freedom “because in a free, pluralistic and democratic society we prize a diversity of ideas and opinions for their inherent value both to the community and to the individual,” wrote the appeal court. 

Article content

Other freedoms guaranteed by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms include freedom of conscience and religion, freedom of the press and freedom of peaceful assembly, as well as the right to life, and freedom from unreasonable search and seizure and unwarranted arrest. However, respecting personal freedom in Canada long predates the 1982 Constitution.