Reconstructing Rights in the Spirit of a New Partnership

Abstract

The author argues that the Canadian Charter of Rights, the Quebec Charter and Aboriginal rights instruments could be made compatible and constitutionalized in a regime of "multiple charters." Calling for a new version of rights constitutionalism based upon consent and mutual recognition, he analyzes the opposition to the Canadian Charter which has been expressed by Quebec leaders as springing more from its having been imposed without their consent than from hostility to the values it protects.