{"id":574918,"date":"2026-04-01T10:14:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T10:14:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/574918\/"},"modified":"2026-04-01T10:14:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T10:14:08","slug":"letters-the-overriding-question-about-the-override-clause","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/574918\/","title":{"rendered":"Letters: The overriding question about the override clause"},"content":{"rendered":"

Re: \u201cNotwithstanding clause a democratic safeguard<\/a>\u201d (Letter of the day, March 27)<\/p>\n

Denis Coderre forcefully defends the notwithstanding clause in Section 33 of the 1982 Constitution Act as the embodiment of a fundamental principle that elected officials in a democracy must ultimately govern, even if it sometimes requires overriding charter rights.<\/p>\n

And yet, Section 1 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms already imposes what seems to be a sufficient limit on rights guarantees, stating it is \u201csubject only to such reasonable limits prescribed by law as can be demonstrably justified in a free and democratic society.\u201d<\/p>\n

The notwithstanding clause, then, seems logically to contemplate the infringement of guaranteed freedoms and rights in a way that\u00a0cannot\u00a0be demonstrably justified in our free and democratic society. <\/p>\n

If so, that should be only in extreme circumstances and, even then, as Section 33 indeed requires, for a limited time. <\/p>\n

If, instead, the override clause is to be treated as a fundamental feature of our democracy to be invoked whenever governments see fit \u2014 pre-emptively and beyond the reach of the courts \u2014 that would seem to be a detriment to our democracy rather than a safeguard.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Daniel Levinson, C\u00f4te-St-Luc<\/p>\n

Put the focus on primary care <\/p>\n

My admiration goes out to the doctors who insist our health-care system pivot to a priority for access to primary care, especially for vulnerable people, women, the young and the old or fragile.\u00a0<\/p>\n

However, they need to sell primary care to aspiring doctors so that many more will value\u00a0the field and go into it with the understanding\u00a0that our whole system depends on them. <\/p>\n

The more we care for people in primary care, the stronger our population will become and the more efficient our system will be. <\/p>\n

Yes, cutting edge technology and treatment are wonderful, but they should not come at the expense of basic health care.<\/p>\n

Unless the long-term effects of preventive medicine are well documented and publicized, I fear we will continue to struggle with access to\u00a0 basic health care services for everyone.<\/p>\n

At the same time, we must ensure the working life of a family doctor is sustainable and rewarding. <\/p>\n

Julie Waters, Montreal West<\/p>\n

Youth employment demands attention <\/p>\n

Re: \u201cJob losses aren\u2019t cause for panic yet, but youth finding it tough to find a job<\/a>\u201d (The Gazette, March 18)<\/p>\n

For an entire generation, it is a giant barrier to leaving home, building stable lives, gaining experience and preparing for the road ahead.<\/p>\n

We cannot risk a future where technological shifts, such as AI-driven change and automation, leave an entire generation behind.<\/p>\n

Youth unemployment shouldn\u2019t be treated as a side issue. It demands programs and policies that protect youth so they can enter the job market and plan for the future.<\/p>\n

Shannon Michelle Booth, Sainte-Agathe-des-Monts<\/p>\n

Submitting a letter to the editor<\/p>\n

Letters should be sent by email to\u00a0letters@montrealgazette.com<\/a><\/p>\n

We prioritize letters that respond to, or are inspired by, articles published by The Gazette.<\/p>\n

If you are responding to a specific article, let us know which one.<\/p>\n

Letters should be sent uniquely to us. The shorter they are \u2014 ideally, fewer than 200 words \u2014 the greater the chance of publication.<\/p>\n

Timing, clarity, factual accuracy and tone are all important, as is whether the writer has something new to add to the conversation.<\/p>\n

We reserve the right to edit and condense all letters. Care is taken to preserve the core of the writer\u2019s argument.<\/p>\n

Our policy is not to publish anonymous letters, those with pseudonyms or \u201copen letters\u201d addressed to third parties.<\/p>\n

Letters are published with the author\u2019s full name and city or neighbourhood\/borough of residence. Include a phone number and address to help verify identity; these will not be published.<\/p>\n

We will not indicate to you whether your letter will be published. If it has not been published within 10 days or so, it is not likely to be.<\/p>\n

Please send the letter in the body of an email, not as an attachment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Re: \u201cNotwithstanding clause a democratic safeguard\u201d (Letter of the day, March 27) Denis Coderre forcefully defends the notwithstanding…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":574919,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194292],"tags":[80276,49,48,2338,1062],"class_list":["post-574918","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-montreal","tag-bill-21","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-montreal","tag-video"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/574918","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=574918"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/574918\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/574919"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=574918"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=574918"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=574918"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}