Whites-Only Phone Kiosk, South Africa, n.d.
As citizens of a multicultural country that has experienced some hard lessons of its own, Canadians are sensitive to the need to preserve our differences as well as our similarities. The equality rights section of the Charter guarantees that all Canadians will be treated the same way by the legal system whether they speak English or French, are black or white, or are men or women. While equality before the law seems like a simple and obvious provision, we must remember that it is an important, and relatively recent, innovation in human history. Many countries and legal systems continue to treat their citizens differently based on such characteristics as gender, religion, and skin colour. Probably the best-known example of such discrimination in recent years is the Apartheid system in South Africa. Under Apartheid, citizens of African descent were treated very differently from citizens of European heritage. In addition to being denied economic opportunity, mobility rights and other basic democratic freedoms, Blacks were subject to arrest without trial and extended prison sentences.
