Source document: https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/1697705706359.pdf (Canada)
On the 35th Anniversary of the Promulgation of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms 1 In Memory of Rt.

Hon.

John George Diefenbaker, Rt.

Hon.

Pierre Elliott Trudeau, & Hon.

Eugene Forsey, Senator I.
Because we believe in a supreme Being And Language’s power that makes Law our king, Canadians may explore Freedoms plural To draft a Just Society—moral In its decisions, charitable In its deeds, so that everyone’s able To flesh out a dream, live for a Vision— In “freedom of conscience and religion,” To worship and think as one judges wise, To invent new techniques, or improvise New ways of doing, or earning a wage, New ways of living well in each language Official, new ways of sharing problems And solutions, thanks to our shared Freedoms….
II.

You are free to believe and express what 2 You know as Right; to justify or rebut; Free to assemble with whomever else Seconds your perspectives; free to repulse Contrary thought peacefully; free to vote; Free to live in Canada, or go out To gird the globe and return; free to roam From province to province; keep a home Anywhere and work anywhere: To be Mobile is the essence of being free.

III.
III.

You are free to disagree with police (So long as you don’t contradict Justice Elemental), and not face billy clubs Or handcuffs or fired shots or Taser stubs, Unreasonable searches, seizures, stops: Only suspects need be eyed by Cyclops.

You are free, if arrested, to retain A lawyer and seek bail, and not remain In jail, and to deserve a speedy trial So that Innocence attains acquittal.
You are right, upon arrest, to expect Your body’s Dignity merits Respect, And not be threatened with Harm or Woe, 3 Or suffer rank, uncivilized Sorrow….

IV.

You are right to expect Equality— Impartial non-prejudice, Civility, No matter how you look or what you speak: Equality Rights for all lets one be unique.

Not every group has always forever been Free of governmental Persecution; And so Affirmative Action’s declared The right way past wrongs may now be repaired.
V. English and French are the authorized speech In Canada—and through New Brunswick’s reach; And English or French, where minorities, May ask for schools in their communities.

VI.

To be Indigenous is a status Treaties endorse, and so Indigenous Peoples may explore privileges granted By accords, Crown-and-First-Nations-planted, When Canada was colonies, a realm 4 Of settlements upon which settlements Were made, twixt First Peoples and governments Monarchical.
These original rights Are guaranteed in The Charter of Rights And Freedoms, and cannot be extinguished Nor cancelled, nor naysaid, nor relinquished.

VII.

Happily, the Charter does recognize This multicultural mosaic we prize, And the absolute, pure Equality Between male and female and every Body, And also the power of the Parliament To grant services to each resident, Regardless of region, so that income Or locale, do not determine the sum Of Health Care, or Welfare, or Equity Available to every polity.
Coda What came into force, April 17, 1982, was the People’s keen Desire to continue to imagine A Native-Land democracy, akin 5 To popular sovereignty, where all Are equal, and Rights and Freedoms enthrall— So long as they enable possible Utopia and/or dreams plausible, Notwithstanding the “Reasonable” clause That sanctions liberties that scoff at laws.

George Elliott Clarke Parliamentary Poet Laureate (2016-17)