The Constitution Act, 1982 (Schedule B of the Canada Act 1982 (UK)) 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, and changing the latter's name in Canada to the Constitution Act, 1867. Elizabeth II, as Queen of Canada, brought the act into effect with a proclamation she signed in Ottawa on April 17, 1982.
The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms forms the first thirty-five sections (counting Section 16.1 and not counting Section 35) of the Constitution Act, 1982.
As of 2014, the government of Quebec has never formally approved of the enactment of the act, though formal consent was never necessary. Nonetheless, it has remained a persistent political issue in Quebec. The Meech Lake and Charlottetown Accords were designed to secure approval from Quebec, but both efforts failed to do so.
Charter of Rights and Freedoms
The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms is a bill of rights. The Charter is intended to protect certain political and civil rights of people in Canada from the policies and actions of all levels of government. It is also supposed to unify Canadians around a set of principles that embody those rights. The Charter was preceded by the Canadian Bill of Rights, which was introduced by the government of John Diefenbaker in 1960. However, the Bill of Rights was only a federal statute, rather than a constitutional document. Therefore, it was limited in scope and was easily amendable. This motivated some within government to improve rights protections in Canada. The movement for human rights and freedoms that emerged after World War II also wanted to entrench the principles enunciated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Hence, the government of Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau enacted the Charter in 1982.
One of the most notable effects of the adoption of the Charter was to greatly expand the range of judicial review, because the Charter is more explicit with respect to the guarantee of rights and the role of judges in enforcing them than was the Bill of Rights. The courts, when confronted with violations of Charter rights, have struck down unconstitutional statutes or parts of statutes, as they did when Canadian case law was primarily concerned with resolving issues of federalism. However, the Charter granted new powers to the courts to enforce more creative remedies and to exclude more evidence in trials. These powers are greater than what was typical under the common law and under a system of government that, influenced by Canada's mother country the United Kingdom, was based upon Parliamentary supremacy.
Aboriginal Rights clause
Section 35 of the Constitution Act, 1982 "recognizes and affirms" the "existing" aboriginal and treaty rights in Canada. These aboriginal rights protect the activities, practice, or traditions that are integral to the distinct cultures of the aboriginal peoples. The treaty rights protect and enforce agreements between the crown and the aboriginal peoples. Section 35 also provides protection of aboriginal title which protects the use of land for traditional practices. These rights extend to Indian, Inuit, and Métis people.
Other sections of the Constitution Act, 1982 that address aboriginal rights include section 25 of the Charter and section 35.1, which sets expectations for aboriginal participation in the amendment of relevant constitutional provisions.
Equalization and equal opportunity
Section 36 enshrines in the Constitution a value on equal opportunity for the Canadian people, economic development to support that equality, and government services available for public consumption. Subsection 2 goes further in recognizing a "principle" that the federal government should ensure equalization payments.
Writing in 1982, Professor Peter Hogg expressed skepticism as to whether the courts could interpret and enforce this provision, noting its "political and moral, rather than legal" character. Other scholars have noted section 36 is too vague. Since the courts would not be of much use in interpreting the section, the section was nearly amended in 1992 with the Charlottetown Accord to make it enforceable. The Accord never came into effect.
Amending the Constitution
Instead of the usual parliamentary procedure, that includes the monarch's formal Royal Assent for enacting legislation, section 52(3) of the Constitution Act, 1982 requires constitutional amendments to be made in accordance with the rules set out in the Constitution itself. The purpose of this section was to entrench constitutional supremacy and remove the ability of legislators to amend the constitution using simple legislation.
The rules for amending Canada's constitution are quite dense. They are laid out in Part V of the Constitution Act, 1982.
There are five different amendment formulas, each applicable to different types of amendments. These five formulas are:
- The General Formula (the "7/50" procedure) - s. 38. The amendment must be passed by the House of Commons, the Senate, and at least two-thirds of the provincial legislatures representing at least 50% of the population. This covers any amendment procedure not covered more specifically in ss. 41, 43, 44 or 45. The general formula must be used for any of the six situations identified in s. 42.
- The Unanimity Procedure - s. 41. The amendment must be passed by the House of Commons, Senate, and all provincial legislatures.
- "Some-but-not-all Provinces" (or "bilateral" procedure) - s. 43. The amendment must be passed by the House of Commons, the Senate, and the legislative assemblies of those provinces that are affected by the amendment.
- Federal Parliament Alone (or "federal unilateral" procedure) - s. 44. The amendment must only be passed by the House of Commons and the Senate.
- Provincial Legislature Alone (or "provincial unilateral" procedure) - s. 45. The amendment must only be passed by the provincial legislature.
Various other sections of Part V lay out such things as compensation for opting out, when and how a province may opt out of a constitutional amendment, and time limits for achieving a constitutional amendment.
Supremacy clause
Section 52 of the Constitution Act, 1982 provides that the Constitution of Canada is the "supreme law of Canada", and any law inconsistent with it is of no force or effect. This gives Canadian courts the power to strike down legislation. Though such laws remain on the statute book until they are amended, after being struck down they cannot be enforced.
Before the 1982 Act came into effect, the British North America Act, 1867 (now known as the Constitution Act, 1867) had been the supreme law of Canada. The supremacy of the 1867 Act had originally been established by virtue of s. 2 of the Colonial Laws Validity Act, a British Imperial statute declaring that no colonial law that violated an Imperial statute extending to a colony was valid. Since the British North America Act was an Imperial statute extending to Canada, any Canadian law violating the BNA Act was inoperative. Although there was no express provision giving the courts the power to decide that a Canadian law violated the BNA Act and was therefore inoperative, this power was implicit in s. 2 of the Colonial Laws Validity Act, which established the priority of statutes to be applied by the courts.
In 1931, the British Parliament enacted the Statute of Westminster, 1931. This Act provided that the Colonial Laws Validity Act no longer applied to the British Dominions, including Canada. However, it provided that Canada could not amend the British North America Act, which remained subject to amendment only by the British Parliament. This provision maintained the supremacy of the British North America Act in Canadian law until the enactment of the Constitution Act, 1982.
Definition of the Constitution
Section 52(2) of the Constitution Act, 1982 defines the “Constitution of Canada.†The Constitution of Canada is said to include:
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- (a) the Canada Act 1982 (which includes the Constitution Act, 1982 in Schedule B),
- (b) 30 Acts and Orders contained in the Schedule to the Constitution Act, 1982 (including, most significantly, the Constitution Act, 1867), and
- (c) any amendments which may have been made to any of the instruments in the first two categories.
Section 52(2), in addition to containing many Imperial Statutes, contains eight Canadian statutes, three of which created provinces, and five of which were amendments to the Constitution Act, 1867.
The Canadian courts have reserved the right to add and entrench principles and conventions into the Constitution unilaterally. Although a court's ability to recognize human rights not explicitly stated in a constitution is not particularly unusual, the Canadian situation is unique in that this ability extends to procedural issues not related to human rights.
In particular, in New Brunswick Broadcasting Co v Nova Scotia (Speaker of the House of Assembly), the Supreme Court of Canada said that s. 52(2) was not an exhaustive listing of all that comprised the Constitution. The Court reserved the right to add unwritten principles to the Constitution, thereby entrenching them and granting them constitutional supremacy (in this case, they added parliamentary privilege to the Constitution). The Court did note, however, that the list of written documents was static and could not be modified except for through the amending formulas.
General
Section 52 and the remaining sections of the Constitution Act, 1982 are located under the header "General."
Section 56 of the Act states that the English and French versions of the Constitution are equal, and section 57 adds that the English and French versions of the Constitution Act, 1982 itself are equal. Legal experts compare this to section 18, which states that English and French versions of statutes are equal.
Section 59 limits the application of section 23 of the Charter (minority language education) in Quebec. The section will not be fully valid in Quebec until the provincial government chooses to ratify it.
Section 60 states that the Act may be called the Constitution Act, 1982, and that the Constitution Acts can be collectively called the Constitution Acts, 1867 to 1982.
See also
- Australia Act 1986
- New Zealand Constitution Act 1986
References
External links
- Full text of The Constitution Act, 1982 at Department of Justice Canada
- Building a Just Society: A Retrospective of Canadian Rights and Freedoms at Library and Archives Canada