Presentations (Charter and Peckford letter) received by mayor Jeff Genung on April 27th, 2022. (Photo by Barry Blick.)
On Wednesday, April 27th, Deborah Murphy and I had a brief meeting with Mayor Jeff Genung at the Ranche House as a follow-up to our previous meeting with him on February 28th. On this occasion we presented, as a gift to the Town of Cochrane, a framed copy of Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedom, the supreme law of the land, with the expressed expectation that it will be mounted in the Council Chambers under the existing portrait of Queen Elizabeth II, Canada’s head of state.
The mayor was reminded of the oath that he and the councillors took when they took office on October 25th, 2021, namely,
‘I ……… swear that I will diligently, faithfully and to the best of my ability, execute according to the law, the office of mayor (or councillor)’.
Surely, that commitment to execute their duties ‘according to the law’, would apply to the supreme law of the land, the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. According to the Guide to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, “All other laws must be consistent with the rules set out in it. If they are not, they may not be valid. Since the Charter is part of the Constitution, it is the most important law we have in Canada.”
As well, the mayor was given a letter addressed to Cochrane’s Mayor and Council penned by the Honorable A. Brian Peckford, the former Premier of Newfoundland-Labrador and the last living First Minister who helped negotiate (with 12 other First Ministers of Canada) and sign the Constitution of Canada to include the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms (1982). April 17, 2022, marks 40 years since the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms became a part of Canada’s Constitution. Noteworthy from that letter, the assertion by this living architect of the Charter of Rights and Freedom, “This Charter is now being violated by Governments across Canada with mandates that violate a citizen’s freedom to assemble and associate, to earn a livelihood, and to have the right to ‘security of the person’.”
Mr. Peckford has given many passionate speeches and interviews defending the Charter; in this case a speech he gave in Ottawa for the Freedom Convoy on February 15, 2022.
At the outset of our meeting with the mayor, we expressed appreciation for his commitment at our previous meeting on February 28th to suspend without delay the discriminatory practice of requiring Town employees as well as new hires to reveal their vaccination status in order to be employed by the Town, which Mr. Peckford would view as a violation of our Charter.
We are hopeful that the presence of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms in the Council Chambers will be a reminder that the actions taken there are to be guided by the Charter, the supreme law of the land.