Canadian Constitutional Documents

A Legal History

(C) Copyright 1994-2020 William F. Maton

Quota pars operis tanti nobis committur? - Seneca

Memory - A practical quality which allows us to weigh what has already been done against what might be done now. Memory is therefore a key to responsible action....Romanticism is a fantasized version of the past. Unpleasant events and personal or national failures are erased, while comforts and successes are exaggerated. Or wrongs may be exaggerated and comforts and successes erased. On either side romanticism is intended to energize false hopes. In its most exaggerated form it denies the relevance of memory and constructs free-standing abstract ideologies. - John Ralston Saul

Please read the following disclaimer first, then check what's new at this archive, the last modification having been made on 28 June, 2019 (always check what's new first!!), or go to the top of the archive.

Disclaimer

These documents are provided as a service to Canadians and others interested in Canada, who regularly travel the net and who are curious in regards to, "what the fuss is all about." This "collection" is merely here for reference only.

If you have a legal question regarding the constitutional validity of a law, or any other legal questions, please consult a lawyer.

Every effort has been made to reproduce these documents accurately. However, since these documents were obtained through either OCR (Optical Character Recognition), through the Internet from other sources or otherwise hand-typed, errors of various sorts may occur. Please send e-mail if you find any, thank you.

This service is not in any way connected to or funded by the Government of Canada, its agencies, or crown corporations. This is simply a service provided by the author in his spare time as a free reference. It's not even supported by dark money.

Preface

Unlike the majority of countries whose basic law derives from one document, Canada's basic law derives not only from a set of documents known as Constitution Acts, but also a set of unwritten laws and conventions. This comprises of all the acts passed since 1867 up to and including 2001. As a result, all constitutional documents during that time period have the force of law. This is analogous to laying a foundation (Constitution Act, 1867) and then building upon it and modifying it as the need arises (the successive Acts and Orders).

The Documents

There are other documents that relate to Canada's development as a country, such as those predating Confederation, which do not hold the force of law, as each act was superseded by the other until the passing and proclamation of the Constitution Act, 1867. Some of these documents include the Charter of Hudson's Bay, the Royal Proclamation, 1763 and the Quebec Act, 1774. Still, section 129 of the Constitution Act, 1867 implies yet more laws prior to this one apply.

Also, in past and recent history there have been many proposals (among them the Victoria Charter, the 1978 paper A Time for Action and a draft preamble from 1980 among other things, to amend the constitution which either failed to get ratified or were rejected during the original process of drafting the "patriation" formula. Then there's the the 1987 Meech Lake Accord and the paper Shaping Canada's Future Together (Charlottetown Accord)) Of course, such proposals wouldn't be complete without some committee and commission reports which also contain many other ideas and adjustments to some proposals.

Amongst those documents cited, there are other important documents worth mentioning also, that have to do in one way or another with the development of Canada's constitution, as well as that of the country. A few of these are the London Resolutions of 1866 and the Quebec Sign Law, Bill 178 of 1988, as well as the Federal law binding Parliament to use a self-imposed constitutional amending formula.

Finally, one cannot overlook the great expanse of opinion from many people. Arguments for and against constitutional change and analysises are constantly thrown into the public forum, and here a small extract can be found.

Formatting Notes

As you browse through each document, notice how in many of the older enactments the nouns tend to be capitalized: This was a tradition carried from the United Kingdom and was later dropped by Canada.

Also note that within these documents, at nearly the top of each of these, you will find a date in parentheses. This is the date when the document was given Royal Assent (i.e., proclaimed into law the same day perhaps, but not always).

N. B. These documents are the English versions. A committee was struck years ago to have them translated into an official French version, but to the best of my knowledge, it handed in its report to Parliament in 1990. Apparently the report was then distributed to the provinces as part of a process to introduce a Parliamentary resolution, but the political climate of the 1990's has halted that process. Interestingly enough, this report's recommended translations has come into question.

For more details on this, refer to section 55 of the Constitution Act, 1982.

Contributions (particularly for French language versions) to this project are welcome. I have some more plans for this, so stay tuned! Please see the Acknowledgments for a list of contributors who have helped along the way. Any comments are appreciated.

You may also see what others have said about this site over the years.

Eppur, si muove.... - Galileo