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The Victoria Charter was a set of proposed amendments to the Constitution of Canada in 1971. This document represented a failed attempt on the part of Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau to patriate the Constitution, add a bill of rights to it and entrench English and French as Canada's official languages; he later succeeded in all these objectives in 1982 with the enactment of the Constitution Act, 1982 .
The Charter would have also terminated the powers of disallowance and reservation, which remain in the Constitution. There was also a bill of rights and a new amending formula.
The Victoria Charter began with the title "Part I – Political Rights", which contained nine "articles." This bill of rights, however, was not as elaborate as Canada's current constitutional bill of rights, the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms . [1]
The first article "declared" the existence of freedom of expression and freedom of religion, and like the 1960 Canadian Bill of Rights , stipulated that "all laws shall be construed and applied so as not to abrogate or abridge any such freedom." Article 2 established the applicability of the bill of rights to Parliament and the legislatures, and article 3 allowed for reasonable limits on rights (compare this to section 1 of the Charter [2] ).
Article 4 recognized the importance of the right to vote, and article 5 elaborated on this by saying the right could not be denied due to race, religion or sex. Articles 6 and 7 set the maximum duration of the House of Commons of Canada and provincial legislatures at five years (a function now assumed by section 4 of the Charter).
Language rights were covered by Part II of the Victoria Charter. Article 10 recognized Canada's official bilingualism and article 11 allowed bilingualism in Parliament and in the legislatures of Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Manitoba, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland.
Parts IV and V dealt with the court system of Canada, with Part IV discussing the Supreme Court of Canada. Article 22 recognized the existence of the Supreme Court, in contrast to the Constitution Act, 1867 , which merely permitted Parliament to create such a court.
Articles 24 to 33 dealt with Supreme Court appointments. Article 25 would have constitutionalized the requirement that three judges should come from Quebec, and articles 26 to 30 assigned partial responsibility of appointments to both federal and provincial justice ministers. Their choices, however, would be narrowed down and approved by a council (under article 31).
Part V was much shorter, consisting of article 43, which permitted Parliament to regulate the organization of courts.
Like section 36 of the Constitution Act, 1982 , Part VII of the Victoria Charter addressed "Regional Disparities". Article 46 emphasized the values of equality of opportunity and assurances to public services. It also emphasized "economic development" to reduce regional disparities.
However, article 47 clarified that article 46 could not be used to force Parliament or the provincial legislatures to take any sort of action, and clarified article 46 would not affect the current division of powers. Thus, Part VII served to recognize values not meant to be enforced by courts.
The Charter set up an amending formula that would give vetoes to the federal government and the two largest provinces, Ontario and Quebec. Later, when the Canada Act 1982 was enacted, no province was given the veto, except in certain areas where unanimity is required. (The lack of veto power for Quebec was discussed and upheld by the Supreme Court in the Quebec Veto Reference.) In contrast, the Meech Lake Accord, proposed amendments in 1987–1990, would have given every province the veto in relation to certain matters.
The premier of the third largest province, British Columbia, also wanted this power, but the Victoria Charter did not recognize any veto for British Columbia. It did, however, stipulate that at least two provinces in Western Canada should approve an amendment, and that these provinces should contain half or more of the total Western population. The majority of provinces would be needed for amendments to pass, and this would also have to include two provinces in Atlantic Canada.
The Charter failed when the premier of Quebec, Robert Bourassa, stalled and rejected it. In his Memoirs, Trudeau recalled Bourassa had slowed negotiations after all provinces had accepted the Charter. Bourassa did this by coming up with a new proposal that would give provinces supremacy over social policy, and the federal government would provide the money for such policy. Trudeau replied he could never agree to this proposal, and Bourassa retracted his approval of the Charter. Bourassa's explanation for not accepting the Charter immediately was that he would have to ask his cabinet and he was worried Quebec nationalists and students would rally against the Charter. Eventually such protests did occur. [3]
Trudeau blamed Bourassa's rejection of the Charter for the later victory of the Parti Québécois in provincial elections in 1976 and for the Meech Lake Accord, since Bourassa had cost Quebec a constitutional veto. "Much of Bourassa's subsequent career has been spent trying to regain what he was once so unwise as to refuse," Trudeau wrote. [4]
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The Constitution of Canada is the supreme law in Canada. It outlines Canada's system of government and the civil and human rights of those who are citizens of Canada and non-citizens in Canada. Its contents are an amalgamation of various codified acts, treaties between the Crown and Indigenous Peoples, uncodified traditions and conventions. Canada is one of the oldest constitutional monarchies in the world.
Section 33 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms is part of the Constitution of Canada. It is commonly known as the notwithstanding clause, sometimes referred to as the override power, and it allows Parliament or provincial legislatures to temporarily override sections 2 and 7–15 of the Charter.
The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, often simply referred to as the Charter in Canada, is a bill of rights entrenched in the Constitution of Canada, forming the first part of the Constitution Act, 1982. The Charter guarantees certain political rights to Canadian citizens and civil rights of everyone in Canada from the policies and actions of all areas and levels of the government. It is designed to unify Canadians around a set of principles that embody those rights. The Charter was signed into law by Queen Elizabeth II of Canada on April 17, 1982, along with the rest of the Constitution Act, 1982.
The Canada Act 1982 is an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom and one of the enactments which make up the Constitution of Canada. It was enacted at the request of the Senate and House of Commons of Canada to patriate Canada's Constitution, ending the power of the British Parliament to amend the Constitution. The act also formally ended the "request and consent" provisions of the Statute of Westminster 1931 in relation to Canada, whereby the British parliament had a general power to pass laws extending to Canada at its own request.
The Constitution Act, 1982 is a part of the Constitution of Canada. The Act was introduced as part of Canada's process of patriating the constitution, introducing several amendments to the British North America Act, 1867, including re-naming it the Constitution Act, 1867. In addition to patriating the Constitution, the Constitution Act, 1982 enacted the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms; guaranteed rights of the Aboriginal peoples of Canada; provided for future constitutional conferences; and set out the procedures for amending the Constitution in the future.
The politics of Quebec are centred on a provincial government resembling that of the other Canadian provinces, namely a constitutional monarchy and parliamentary democracy. The capital of Quebec is Quebec City, where the Lieutenant Governor, Premier, the legislature, and cabinet reside.
The Charlottetown Accord was a package of proposed amendments to the Constitution of Canada, proposed by the Canadian federal and provincial governments in 1992. It was submitted to a public referendum on October 26 and was defeated.
The Meech Lake Accord was a series of proposed amendments to the Constitution of Canada negotiated in 1987 by Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and all 10 Canadian provincial premiers. It was intended to persuade the government of Quebec to symbolically endorse the 1982 constitutional amendments by providing for some decentralization of the Canadian federation.
The Constitutional debate of Canada is an ongoing debate covering various political issues regarding the fundamental law of the country. The debate can be traced back to the Royal Proclamation, issued on October 7, 1763, following the signing of the Treaty of Paris (1763) wherein France ceded most of New France to Great Britain in favour of keeping Guadeloupe.
Reference Re Secession of Quebec, [1998] 2 SCR 217 is a landmark judgment of the Supreme Court of Canada regarding the legality, under both Canadian and international law, of a unilateral secession of Quebec from Canada.
Patriation is the political process that led to full Canadian sovereignty, culminating with the Constitution Act, 1982. The process was necessary because under the Statute of Westminster 1931, with Canada's agreement at the time, the British parliament had retained the power to amend Canada's Constitution Acts, and to enact more generally for Canada at the request and with the consent of the Dominion. That authority was removed from the UK by the enactment of the Canada Act 1982 on March 29, 1982, by the Parliament of the United Kingdom, as requested by the Parliament of Canada.
Distinct society is a political term especially used during constitutional debate in Canada, in the second half of the 1980s and in the early 1990s, and present in the two failed constitutional amendments, the Meech Lake Accord and the Charlottetown Accord. "Distinct society" refers to the uniqueness of the province of Quebec within Canada, although here the meaning of "unique" is vague and controversial.
The Constitution Act, 1867, originally enacted as the British North America Act, 1867, is a major part of the Constitution of Canada. The act created a federal dominion and defines much of the operation of the Government of Canada, including its federal structure, the House of Commons, the Senate, the justice system, and the taxation system. In 1982, with the patriation of the Constitution, the British North America Acts which were originally enacted by the British Parliament, including this Act, were renamed. Although, the acts are still known by their original names in records of the United Kingdom. Amendments were also made at this time: section 92A was added, giving provinces greater control over non-renewable natural resources.
The constitutional history of Canada begins with the 1763 Treaty of Paris, in which France ceded most of New France to Great Britain. Canada was the colony along the St Lawrence River, part of present-day Ontario and Quebec. Its government underwent many structural changes over the following century. In 1867 Canada became the name of the new federal Dominion extending ultimately from the Atlantic to the Pacific and the Arctic coasts. Canada obtained legislative autonomy from the United Kingdom in 1931, and had its constitution patriated in 1982. Canada's constitution includes the amalgam of constitutional law spanning this history.
The History of the Quebec sovereignty movement covers various movements which sought to achieve political independence for Quebec, a province of Canada since 1867.
Section 16.1 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms guarantees equality between English-speaking and French-speaking residents of New Brunswick. Enacted in 1993, it is the most recent addition to the Charter.
Before 1982, modifying the Constitution of Canada primarily meant amending the British North America Act, 1867. Unlike most other constitutions, however, the Act had no amending formula; instead, changes were enacted through Acts of the Parliament of the United Kingdom called the British North America Acts.
Reference Re Resolution to amend the Constitution – also known as the Patriation Reference – is a historic Supreme Court of Canada reference case that occurred during negotiations for the patriation of the Constitution of Canada.
Since the Constitution of Canada was patriated, in 1982, ten Amendments to the Constitution of Canada have been passed. There have, however, been a number of unsuccessful attempts to amend the Constitution in accordance with its amending formula.
Section 93 of the Constitution Act, 1867 is a provision of the Constitution of Canada relating to education. It gives the provinces a broad legislative jurisdiction over education. Section 93 also contains guarantees of publicly funded denominational and separate schools for Catholic or Protestant minorities in some provinces.
