Former Canadian prime minister Jean Chretien at the Night for Rights gala, organized by Journalists for Human Rights in Toronto on Wednesday.

Canada’s premiers are too quick to use the notwithstanding clause for “marginal reasons” and have lost sight of its original purpose, former prime minister Jean Chrétien said Wednesday evening.

Chrétien, who as justice minister negotiated the clause’s inclusion in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms in 1981, said provinces are using it “for anything” 40 years later.

“It was not designed for that. It was designed [for] when there was a court going too far, politicians can intervene,” he said of the provision, which gives legislatures the ability to override certain portions of the Charter for up to five years.

“That worries me very, very much.”

He

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