Practice by chapter
Rights and responsibilities: practice quiz and key facts
Ten questions drawn only from the first chapter of the guide, each one corrected the moment you answer. Below the quiz, the facts the test keeps coming back to.
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Practice questions written by Radif Partners from the facts of the official guide. Not the official test.
The first chapter of Discover Canada, on the rights and responsibilities of citizenship, is short but dense, and our bank holds 15 questions on it out of 150. Expect questions on dates and documents: Magna Carta, signed in England in 1215, and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, written into the Constitution in 1982. Expect others on definitions: habeas corpus (the right to challenge an unlawful detention), the rule of law (leaders obey the law like everyone else), mobility rights (live and work in any province, leave and return, hold a passport). The chapter then lists what citizens owe in return: obeying the law, supporting yourself and your family, serving on a jury when summoned, voting, helping others and protecting heritage and the environment. Military service is voluntary. Since the real test asks 20 questions drawn from all ten chapters and you need 15 right, this chapter is a cheap source of points: few facts, asked often, rarely ambiguous.
Questions, counts and fees by Radif Partners · Editorial policy · How questions and dates are built
What the test asks from this chapter
Questions from the rights chapter fall into three families. The first is history in two dates: 1215 for Magna Carta, the English charter at the root of the Canadian tradition of ordered liberty, and 1982 for the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, entrenched in the Constitution. The second is vocabulary: habeas corpus, rule of law, mobility rights, official language rights. The third is the list of responsibilities. In our bank, 15 of the 150 questions come from this chapter, so in a ten-question practice set drawn from it you will see most of these ideas at least once.
| Fact | What to remember |
|---|---|
| 1215 | Magna Carta signed in England |
| 1982 | Charter of Rights and Freedoms entrenched in the Constitution |
| Charter opening | rule of law and supremacy of God |
| Habeas corpus | challenge an unlawful detention before a court |
| Mobility rights | live and work anywhere in Canada, leave and come back, apply for a passport |
| Sources of law | laws of Parliament and legislatures, English common law, French civil code, unwritten British customs |
Traps between close notions
Habeas corpus or presumption of innocence? Both protect a person facing the state, but habeas corpus concerns detention (am I lawfully held?), while the presumption of innocence concerns guilt and belongs to the justice chapter. 1982 or 1867? Confederation dates from 1867; the Charter from 1982. A question that mentions the Charter never has 1867 as its answer. Common law or civil code? Canada uses both: the common law inherited from England and the civil code of France, alongside statutes adopted by Parliament and by provincial legislatures.
Two more points are often tested. Equality of women and men is stated without exception: the guide says Canada's openness does not extend to practices that deny it, and it describes forced marriage and so-called honour killings as crimes that are severely punished. And the Charter cannot be used to reduce the treaty rights or other rights of Aboriginal peoples, which the Constitution recognizes separately.
Responsibilities, item by item
Learn the list rather than the reasoning: obeying the law; taking responsibility for yourself and your family by working to the best of your ability; serving on a jury when called; voting at the local, provincial or territorial and federal levels; helping people around you, for instance by volunteering; and protecting Canada's heritage and environment by limiting waste and pollution. Defence of the country is mentioned, but service in the forces is voluntary, and the cadets are suggested for young people.
Where to go next
The chapter that follows, Who We Are, moves from rights to the peoples who make up Canada. Mobility and equality rights come back in a practical form in the justice system chapter. To read every question of this chapter with its answer, open the question bank; when you are scoring well here, test yourself across all chapters with the timed mock test. The facts above are drawn from Discover Canada, which IRCC names as the only official study guide.