Do ‘Principles That Recognize the Supremacy of God’ Matter in Our Society?

The sculpture of Ivstitia (Justice) at the Supreme Court of Canada is seen alongside the Peace Tower on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, on June 17, 2021. The Canadian Press/Justin Tang

Commentary

Canada’s Constitution proclaims that Canada is built upon “principles that recognize the supremacy of God and the rule of law.” This statement defines the foundation of Canadian society, including its social, economic, cultural, political, and legal life, and the core values of Western civilization.

On Nov. 27, I moved that the 2025 annual general meeting (AGM) of the Law Society of Alberta (LSA) adopt resolutions, among others, that the LSA use its regulatory power and authority to promote, protect, and comply with stated principles in our Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms that recognize the supremacy of God and the rule of law, and to that end, promote and protect the loyalty of the legal profession and lawyers to the Constitution. The motion was defeated 453 to 43 of the 496 votes cast.

Perhaps that outcome was the result of the highly artificial nature of online “meetings.”  Perhaps it was the result of a new generation of lawyers who can mouth these fundamental principles but do not really believe in them.

During the debate on my motion at the AGM, an LSA member who voted against my motion quoted the Hon. Madam Justice Southin of the B.C. Court of Appeal in R. v. Sharpe, 1999, that the words “supremacy of God” in the Charter “have become a dead letter” and the court “has no authority to breathe life into them for the purpose of interpreting the various provisions of the Charter.”

Justice Southin’s statement has been frequently used to dismiss the words “supremacy of God” from the Charter. However, this statement is just an obiter dictum (something said in passing) and has no binding force in law. In fact, under a constitutional democracy, no judge has any power to take out an eraser and rub out any parts of law they don’t like, and Southin’s job was to apply the law only, but not change any law or delete any law.

I immigrated from communist China to Canada 25 years ago because I wanted to live a free man. Throughout my whole education, including in law school at Peking University, I was indoctrinated in communist ideology. I was later blessed to have the opportunity to receive legal education and practice law in Canada.

Under the constitution of China, the rule of law is not built upon the supremacy of God but upon the supremacy of the Chinese Communist Party or the communist ideology. When the supremacy of God is replaced by the supremacy of ideology or a political party and ultimately men, the rule of law becomes a dictatorship of elites.

Under Canada’s Constitution, the rule of law is built upon principles that recognize the supremacy of God. To believers, God is, among others, Universal Truth, Unconditional Love, Highway to Freedom, Unlimited Wisdom, and Ultimate Giver and Fountain of good morality and laws (collectively defined as the “Perfection”). To non-believers, God symbolizes the Perfection. If we replace the word “God” with “Perfection,” and “principles that recognize the supremacy of God” with “principles that recognize the supremacy of the Perfection,” both believers and atheists may support and accept this idea.

The wisdom of the rule of law under principles that recognize the supremacy of God is that it prohibits anyone from becoming the holder of the Perfection but treats everyone equally imperfect in front of the Perfection. As a result, the rule of law under principles that recognize the supremacy of God dictates that no one shall hold absolute power and no one in our government, be it a judge, a premier, a speaker, or a bencher, shall dictate what we believe or not, nor shall they occupy the position of God. No ideology—be it communism or “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI) or “Black Lives Matter”—shall be given the status of supremacy in the social, cultural, economic, political, and legal life of our society.

In summary, the rule of law under principles that recognize the supremacy of God is the lifeline of the constitutional democracy of Canada.

If Canadians allow their Constitution to be rewritten: “Whereas Canada is founded upon principles that recognize the supremacy of ideology and the rule of law,” dictatorship will soon follow—“for the greater good.”

The process has already begun. Over the last five years, the LSA has used its regulatory power to impose what appears to me a Marxist–Leninist version of Canadian history and cultural “competence” on Alberta lawyers. The ideology passes under the titles “DEI” and “cultural competence.” DEI takes the place of principles that recognize the supremacy of God; compliance is required and debate is stifled.

Lawyers must comply because the LSA has the power to take away a lawyer’s livelihood and even levy large fines on the disobedient.

Like communist ideology, DEI uses harmless and benign concepts like diversity, inclusion, or equity. The devil is in the question of who holds the power to define what is diversity, inclusion, or equity. Diversity, inclusion, or equity of sin and sexual immorality will upset and derail the whole society.

If we allow the LSA to tell lawyers what DEI is and to police lawyers’ compliance with what they are told DEI is, suddenly, the law society will be a society built upon the principles that recognize the supremacy of DEI or cultural competence dictated by benchers in instead of principles that recognize the supremacy of God which everyone has the right to seek and pursue equally, freely, and faithfully.

On Nov. 6, the LSA announced that it has joined the law societies across Canada to launch a national campaign to raise awareness about the importance of the rule of law. It will set the society on a path that destroys the lifeline of the constitutional democracy of Canada if only the rule of law is promoted at the expense of principles that recognize the supremacy of God.

The defeat of my motion at the LSA’s AGM serves as an alarm that Canada’s constitutional democracy will have a hard landing if a new generation of the legal profession discards principles that recognize the supremacy of God and becomes slaves of DEI and idolatry under the so-called “rule of law.” May God have mercy and reverse that course.

Roger Song is a lawyer based in Calgary and a member of the Law Society of Alberta.

Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.