Learn About Your Charter Rights

Welcome to the Remote Rights Project web resources. The Canadian Civil Liberties Education Trust has been educating young people in Canada about their rights and freedoms in classrooms for more than 20 years, and we’re thrilled that with grant support from the Canadian Internet Registration Authority’s (CIRA) Community Initiatives Project, we are able to provide an online version of our programming for teachers and students in rural and remote locations across Canada. We are grateful for the assistance of our community partners from several provinces who helped us to focus these tools to meet their needs.

We’ve created a series of tools to help teachers and young people think critically about the rights and freedoms that are a fundamental part of our Canadian democracy. You can work your way through the tools in order (we’ve made a menu below that will help you navigate a path) or browse through the ones that look the most interesting to you.

“Your Rights 101” provides a series of introductory materials about particular rights granted by Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms and a special test to help you learn about balancing competing rights called the Acorn Test (which is a simple version of the test Canadian courts use, called the Oakes Test), in a series of downloadable guides. These will help you when you work your way through the interactive case study about “Freedom of Expression through Clothing” which comes with an accompanying teacher’s guide that provides two more descriptive case studies and questions for critical reflection and discussion. Our Advocacy Toolkit, available online or in a downloadable and printable version, is designed to provide you with helpful information if you want stand up in your community for the rights that matter to you.