Canada's Constitution
What
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

is a constitution?
A document that sets up the framework for how a country is to be governed
Describes the values, goals, and identity of a country
What does it mean to be Canadian according to our constitution?
The History of the Canadian Constitution
 At the beginning of the 1860s, Canada was still a British colony
 No separate government or identity
 Followed English laws
 1864: Group of 36 men representing the different regions of Canada began to
discuss unification
 Idea was to join all the different provinces of Canada together under one central
government
 The union would be politically and economically independent, while still maintaining a
relationship with Britain
 New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Quebec, and Ontario brought the proposal to Britain,
where the British North America Act was signed
 The BNA Act (1867) established Canada as a nation, with John A. MacDonald as its
first Prime Minister
British North America Act - 1867
 Was the first piece of Canada’s Constitution, and remains a major part of it today
 Sets out how Canada is to be governed
 In its original form, The BNA Act didn’t give Canada complete freedom from Britain
 British approval was still required on many decisions
Federal System
 In designing how the government would work, the new government selected a
different system than the Americans (decentralized) or the British (unitary
system)
 Selected a federal system of government
 Responsibilities divided between two levels of government: federal and provincial
Residual Powers
 When John A. MacDonald and the other fathers of confederation made the
constitution, they realized they couldn’t imagine everything that might happen in
the future
 All these issues that had not yet arisen were called ‘residual powers’ and were
assigned to the federal government
Canada's Constitution
Statute of Westminster - 1931
Two major changes to the original Constitution:
1. Gave Canada the ability to make its own laws independent of Britain
2. Gave Canada the independence to make its own international agreements
But…
 The British North American Act still tied Canada very closely to Britain
 Canada couldn’t change or amend its Constitution without permission from Britain
 Nothing in the Constitution addressed civil liberties or human rights
 The provincial and federal governments met many times to discuss making changes
to the Constitution, but neither was willing to compromise on giving up any of its
powers
Trudeau and Patriating the Constitution
 When Pierre Elliott Trudeau was elected, one of his goals was to address the
problems in the Constitution
 After unsuccessfully bringing together the representatives from the provinces
several times, Trudeau gathered the premieres in Saskatchewan
 After several days of intense debate, an agreement was signed; Rene Levesque,
premier of Quebec, was not present
Constitution Act - 1982
 Despite Levesque’s outrage and refusal to sign, the Constitution Act became the law
of the land on April 17, 1982, when it was signed by the Queen and Trudeau in
Ottawa
 The new Constitution was still based on the original division of powers in the British
North America Act, but added four key elements:
1.
2.
3.
4.
A principle of equalization (all provinces would have equal access to essential services)
Clarification of responsibility of natural resources
A way to make future changes to the Constitution
The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms
Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms
 Lays out in specific detail the rights and freedoms of all Canadian citizens,
including:
 Fundamental Freedoms, Democratic Rights, Legal Rights, Official Languages, etc.
 These rights became constitutional laws, meaning any law that violated them could
be declared unconstitutional and struck down