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Prime Minister John Diefenbaker was first elected to office in 1957. This government was a minority and it was a top priority for Diefenbaker to win a majority government. Calling an election for March 31, 1958, Diefenbaker was taking a chance that the Canadian people were ready to embrace the changes that his government was ready to implement. At the end of the 1958 election, Diefenbaker’s government boasted the largest ever, Conservative majority within Canada’s history.

Now that the Canadian public has overwhelmingly endorsed the Conservative’s platforms, Diefenbaker set out to accomplish his number one goal, the introduction of a bill protecting the rights of Canadian citizens. The issue was close to home for Diefenbaker, as he often felt he had been slighted due to his heritage. Being a champion of our civil liberties might well be one of his greatest accomplishments.

The British North America Act, legislation controlled by the British Parliament, was the only legislation that made mention of the issue of rights and freedoms for citizens. If Canada wanted to affect changes to this document they would have to write to Britain for approval and hope the government saw fit to make the suggested amendments. Diefenbaker realised that it was of the utmost importance to have this legislation residing in Canada, where Canadians could proactively modify the legislation to ensure prompt response to issues faced by its people.

It would be an uphill battle for Diefenbaker to achieve his goal, but once he set his mind on accomplishing something, he was very focused in seeing the project through to completion. He would face criticism and scepticism from members of parliament as well as the members of the press, but this would not stop him from drafting legislation to be introduced into the House of Commons.

One of the major concerns was that the federal government, by legislating a bill of rights, would be overstepping its boundaries resulting in conflict of interest and suppression of rights and freedoms. This was a very valid concern, never before had such legislation entered the debate and members of the House were quick to show their disapproval of the proposed bill.

Diefenbaker, a former lawyer, was not ready to back down and so drafted Bill C-60 entitled “An Act for The Recognition and Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.” On September 5, 1958 he brought the draft bill to the members of his cabinet. He was not looking for ratification of the bill, it was after all only a draft, but he was looking for the opportunity to test the foundations of the bill in a political setting. It would be through this type of feedback that he would be able to determine what areas of the bill would need to be revised to ensure the legislation would be effective in protecting rights and freedoms of Canadians.

Once again Diefenbaker faced criticisms on the bill, opponents called the attempts at civil liberties legislation to be ineffectual and unable to more clearly define rights and freedoms for Canadians than the existing British North America Act. For matters of strong personal conviction, Diefenbaker could not be swayed from his determined goals, which was proven by the introduction of Bill C-60, into the House of Commons on July 1, 1960. The significance of the date was clear in support of his desire to ensure Canadian dignities, since July 1 was known as Dominion Day (now known as Canada Day), the day to celebrate all that was Canadian.

Diefenbaker believed the bill would quickly be accepted and become law. A unanimous vote, upon second reading, for Bill C-60 resulted in ratification of the proposed legislation. Diefenbaker’s dream would come true on August 10, 1960 when Bill C-60 became the law known as the Bill of Rights.

The Bill of Rights quickly appeared in almost a dozen different litigation cases, within that first year of being passed. Surprisingly, only one case out of the dozen was not permitted to use the Bill of Rights in its court battle, which was a taxation case. The Bill of Rights still plays a very important role in Canadian society. Diefenbaker’s efforts in bringing this important legislation to Canada will in all likelihood be deemed one of his greatest successes, perhaps it does not erase the unpopular decisions he made, but it does help to redeem him in the Canadian people’s memories.

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