November 6, 2025
RED FM News Desk
Former prime minister Jean Chretien says Canada’s premiers are increasingly invoking the notwithstanding clause for “marginal reasons,” straying far from the original intent of the Charter provision he helped negotiate more than 40 years ago.
Speaking at a Journalists for Human Rights event in Toronto on Wednesday, Chretien — who served as justice minister during the clause’s creation in 1981 — said provinces are now using it “for anything,” rather than as a rare check on courts that overreach.
“It was not designed for that,” he said. “It was designed [so that] when there was a court going too far, politicians can intervene. That worries me very, very much.”
While he did not cite specific examples, the warning comes days after Alberta used the clause to force striking teachers back to work. Quebec, Ontario and Saskatchewan have also invoked it in recent years.
Chretien’s remarks extended beyond Canada. He voiced deep concern about the global state of democracy, with particular alarm over developments in the United States. Marking one year since U.S. President Donald Trump’s second-term election, Chretien called it a “very bad sign” that the president has deployed National Guard troops in multiple major cities to quell protests.
Despite his worries, the 91-year-old said he avoids giving advice to sitting prime ministers, joking that he doesn’t want to be a “Monday morning quarterback.”
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