Justice minister rules out withdrawing legal submission on notwithstanding clause

Justice Minister Sean Fraser is rebuffing calls from several premiers for Ottawa to withdraw its legal argument calling for limits on use of the Constitution's notwithstanding clause.

Fraser says it would be "unimaginable" for a federal government to steer clear of a case affecting Charter rights that will have lasting impacts and suggests the premiers' argument is "untenable."

The minister says this should be a legal matter decided through the courts, not a political debate.

In a filing submitted last month to the Supreme Court of Canada in a case on Quebec's secularism law, the federal government argues constitutional limits on the notwithstanding clause should prevent it from being used to wipe out rights guaranteed under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

But the premiers of Ontario, Quebec, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Nova Scotia say the federal government should withdraw its submission because it disavows the bargain the provinces and the federal government struck when they created the Charter.

The Constitution's notwithstanding clause gives provincial legislatures or Parliament the ability to pass legislation that effectively overrides provisions of the Charter for a five-year period.

Picture Courtesy: THE CANADIAN PRESS/Spencer Colby