This thesis examines critically the most important restrictions placed on the right to peaceful demonstration in Canada. Protected by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms as a matter of constitutional law, the right is limited by a network of civil and penal sanctions in such a way that, in practice, its exercise is considerably restricted. Firstly, the protection afforded to owners of land under the law of property excludes all peaceful demonstration on private property without permission of the owner. Tossed as it is into the street and onto the sidewalks, the activity may also be seen to disturb other interests protected by law in the public domain. It is not infrequent that injunctions are brought against peaceful demonstrations on the grounds that they disrupt public order, that they harm the economic interests of private parties, or that they are the occasion for mischief or damage to property. In addition to the limits that originate in the law of civil liability, peaceful demonstration is restricted by criminal law, in particular the prohibition against unlawful assemblies, which permits the police to exercise a control over a demonstration and to intervene in order to prevent anticipated outbursts. The rules relating to the infraction of unlawful assembly allow the authorities to disperse the demonstrators at the first sign of tension in what amounts to a willful confusion, by the legislature, between acts of protest and acts of violence. Overall, the scope of this network of civil and penal sanctions is such as to suggest that the right to peaceful demonstration is something of a false promise.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.80920 |
| Date | January 2003 |
| Creators | Forget, Patrick |
| Contributors | Macdonnal, Roderick A. (advisor) |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | French |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Master of Laws (Institute of Comparative Law.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 002085769, proquestno: AAIMQ98785, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
Page generated in 0.0021 seconds