Just Rights: The Canadian Charter in Troubled Times

In Just Rights, distinguished legal scholar Joel Bakan argues that our courts are obliged by the Canadian Charter to protect social justice and equality as core democratic and constitutional values, especially as they are increasingly vulnerable to neglect and attack in times of surging right-wing populism and neo-liberal priorities.

Canadian courts have made the claim that Charter rights should be interpreted broadly and generously to reflect and reinforce the fundamental rights of the Canadian body politic; however, they typically stop short of meaningfully implementing this crucial ambition. Bakan contends that it is time for courts to move beyond this practice of inaction. Just Rights builds upon existing principles of Charter law to demonstrate that Canadian courts can and should recognize how Charter rights oblige governments to act positively in aid of fairness and inclusion, and that they further necessitate private actors to respect them.

Unique in Canadian constitutional scholarship, this book offers a clear framework for judicial protection and promotion of social justice under the Charter, with evidence as to how it grows from existing principles, respects real-world limits on judicial power, and confronts the ideological forces of illiberalism and neo-liberalism that threaten equality and democracy today.

• Publication date: 24 November 2026
• Page count: 232
• Dimensions: Height 229 mm; Width 152 mm; Thickness 16 mm
• Publisher: University of Toronto Press
• Format: Paperback
• ISBN-13: 9781487562267