Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms | The Brian Mulroney Institute of Government

On April 17, 1982, the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms became part of the Canada's Constitution Act, 1982 following the patriation of the Constitution by former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau..
The Charter sets out the fundamental rights and freedoms that are believed to be necessary in a free and democratic society and is afforded to any person in Canada whether they are a Canadian citizen, a permanent resident or a newcomer (however there are some rights only afforded to Canadian citizens, such as voting).
Prior to the Charter, human rights were protected by Parliament, under the principle of parliamentary supremacy, which was adopted from the British legal tradition.
The Canadian Bill of Rights (1960) was a federal human rights law that supported the idea of parliamentary supremacy but was not part of the Constitution.
The Bill of Rights was often regarded as ineffective in protecting human rights because Parliament could modify the Bill at its discretion and the judiciary could not use the Bill to override other laws.
The Charter of Rights and Freedoms became the solution that entrenched human rights law in the Constitution, the highest law in Canada.
The Charter guarantees broad equality rights and other fundamental rights (see the Charter for a complete list) and it applies to all levels of governments (federal, provincial and territorial).
The Charter also affirms linguistic right and Indigenous treaty rights, and it has been interpreted to protect citizens from discrimination based on marital status, sexual orientation, and off-reserve Indigenous status.
With the enactment of the Charter, the authority of Canada's highest law was transferred from Great Britain to Canada, which was highly contentious.
Section 52 of the Constitution Act, 1982 ensures that no other law can violate the rights protected in the Act, and it also gives the courts the ability to override other laws that breaches the principles of the constitution.
As such, Canadians rely on judges to uphold human rights protected by the Charter, which means overturning laws that violate the rights and freedoms protected in the Charter.
The Charter of Rights and Freedoms has been incredibly influential in protecting language rights, equality rights, especially for minority or marginalized groups, and for the rights of criminal defendants.
Another important clause of the Charter, which is what ultimately secured the support of the majority of provinces, was Section 33.
Section 33, the 'notwithstanding clause', allows Parliament or any provincial legislature to exempt certain laws from certain sections of the Charter (on fundamental, equality and legal rights) for five years, at which point it would be subject for renewal.
Section 33 has only been used a select few times by provinces and never by the federal government.

Citation

Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, Part 1 of the Constitution Act, 1982, being Scheduled B to the Canada Act 1982 (UK), c 11. https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/const/page-12.html#:~:text=Guarantee%20of%20Rights%20and%20Freedoms&text=1%20The%20Canadian%20Charter%20of,a%20free%20and%20democratic%20society.