Canadians are celebrating the 25th anniversary of the passage of the Charter of Rights, Canada's version of a bill or rights enshrined in the constitution. Prior to it's passage, Canadians were protected from government abuse by the Canadian Bill of Rights, which was federal law that could be changed at the whim of Parliament. By adding rights to the Constitution itself, Canada took the important step of making these rights basically untouchable by the majority-elected Parliament and subject only to Supreme Court interpretation and/or amendment of the constitution itself, not an easy task. In celebration of this anniversary, the Toronto Globe and Mail polled Canadian legal scholars to see what are the ten most influential Supreme Court cases interpreting the Charter. Not surprisingly many of the cases deal with issues that much of the western world, and specifically the United States, has been grappling with for the past few decades: abortion, gay rights and the rights of criminal defendants.
