<Tr> <Td> <Ul> <Li> </Li> <Li> </Li> <Li> </Li> </Ul> </Td> </Tr> <Ul> <Li> </Li> <Li> </Li> <Li> </Li> </Ul> <P> The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms (French: La Charte canadienne des droits et libertés), in Canada often simply the Charter, is a bill of rights entrenched in the Constitution of Canada . It forms the first part of the Constitution Act, 1982 . The Charter guarantees certain political rights to Canadian citizens and civil rights of everyone in Canada from the policies and actions of all areas and levels of the government . It is designed to unify Canadians around a set of principles that embody those rights . The Charter was signed into law by Queen Elizabeth II of Canada on April 17, 1982, along with the rest of the Act . </P> <P> The Charter was preceded by the Canadian Bill of Rights, which was enacted in 1960 . However, the Bill of Rights is only a federal statute, rather than a constitutional document . As a federal statute, it can be amended through the ordinary legislative process and has no application to provincial laws . The Supreme Court of Canada also narrowly interpreted the Bill of Rights and the Court was reluctant to declare laws inoperative . The relative ineffectiveness of the Canadian Bill of Rights motivated many to improve rights protections in Canada . The movement for human rights and freedoms that emerged after World War II also wanted to entrench the principles enunciated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights . The British Parliament formally enacted the Charter as a part of the Canada Act 1982 at the request of the Parliament of Canada in 1982, the result of the efforts of the government of Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau . </P>

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