Abstract:
The addition of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms represented a fundamental
shift in Canadian governance. Many saw the tabling of such a document as a further, even
fmal, step towards the Americanization of the Canadian polity. While the Charter's
presence has significantly altered the relationship between citizens, government and the
courts, it has done so by maintaining the traditional values and experiences that has been
the hallmarks of Canadian constitutionalism. This is in contrast to the fears harboured by
critics suggesting that the Charter was a further Americanization of the Canadian Polity,
notwithstanding the very different natures of the American Bill of Rights and the
Canadian Charter. Analyzing American Supreme Court precedent use by the Canadian
Supreme Court has demonstrated that such an Americanization has not, in fact, occurred.
In the present analysis of American precedent use in section 1 limitation of rights cases,
the citation of these precedents are at best episodic, at least on the quantitative level.
Qualitatively, the Canadian Supreme Court generally uses American jurisprudence to
further support broad definitions of 'great rights' . As for the more intricate details of
rights limitations and the process involved in detennining how Charter rights are limited,
one would be hard pressed to find even cursory references to American case law.
