My Rights are an Unintended Consequence

On the eve of the 25th anniversary of the repatriation of our Constitution, I wonder what life would be like without the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. My father immigrated to this wonderful country before the Charter came into effect and from what I am told, the world was very different then. The Charter forced logical debate over people’s rights and forced out the emotional, racial, and historical biases. I am a female of Chinese descent, and I challenge anyone to find me one country on either side of any ocean that would have granted me basic civil rights as recently as 100 years ago.

When the founders of the New World got together and came up with this idea of democracy, it is no secret that “equal” was restricted to white men in the upper echelons of society. However, they had also laid the foundations for me to vote… perhaps it was an unintended consequence.

Freedom of religion once meant that one was free to choose which sect of Christianity one would like to follow. The inclusion of Buddhism, Islam, Judaism, and all the other religions in our society ruffled many feathers I am sure. Would our MPs 25 years ago have been as enthusiastic about the Charter if they knew it would give a woman the right to an abortion and homosexuals the right to marry? Was this foresight or a serendipitous case of myopia?

It boggles my mind that there are those even in my extended family that question gay rights. If it were not for this beautiful thing called the Charter, many of our communities may not even have rights. If we expect equality, should we not treat others as equal? Should we not stand shoulder to shoulder as Canadians regardless of our backgrounds? Thank goodness for the enshrinement of our basic civil rights regardless of sex, race, or religion. As tolerant as we Canadians are, we only tolerate that which we have learnt to accept. I wonder what else society may have in store for us next.

Thank you for the right to vote, free speech, and religion. I also thank you in advance for all future rights that others or I may receive that no one has yet conceived of. That is the beauty of enshrining universal rights for all.

I would like to think that Pierre Trudeau had this foresight… but I cannot say for sure.

When cultures clash, whose values come in first?

Last week an 11 year old Muslim girl from Quebec got ejected off a soccer pitch for wearing her hijab. The referee (also Muslim although that may be irrelevant), had asked her to remove it and when she refused, he tossed her out of the game.

Based on my household of 2, and a statistically insignificant sample size, there seems to be two schools of thought on this subject. One is to preserve the purity of the sport. Will covering your head give you an advantage over other players in the game? Where do we draw the line? If we allow a hijab, should we also allow padded headbands? If all religious symbols are allowed, then should we not also allow the Skikh ceremonial dagger on the soccer pitch? If you are playing a western invented sport, then the rules of the sport should apply first and foremost while engaged in said sport. Even Andre Agassi could not play at Wimbledon until he decided to conform to their dress code.

The second school of thought is that as long as safety is not compromised and standard rules of decency are adhered to, one should be allowed to wear whatever s(he) wants. Are we so paranoid about secularism that we should ban all religious symbols? If the girl’s religion calls on her to cover her hair, should we then not be inclusive to allow for those cultural differences in a society that claims tolerance? Failing to have headscarf written in the official FIFA rules bears little weight with me. In beach volleyball, bikinis seem to be the de-facto uniform to increase revenue from male spectators. Should a woman choose not to expose her breasts for all to see, then according to FIFA’s logic, should she not also get ejected from the beach volleyball court?

Clearly cultures have clashed here and the real losers are the kids who were denied their sport because their adults could not agree to respect one another.