constitution of canada
Terms
undefined, object
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- BNA Act 1867
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set out what canada was (territory, structure, government, electoral process, HoC, gov gen, etc.). authorized the creation of the court system - s. 92 (provincial), s. 101 (federal), and s. 96 (shared).
inherited UK common law
each province joined confederation under special terms
Canada full of fed-provincial agreements
it\'s in the nat\'l interest for fed gov to support provinces - Constitution act 1982
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Can gained the right to amend the constitution, required agreement with all the provinces.
smaller provinces thought they\'d be overpowered.
there was a question of rights - what are they - free speech, assembly, equality (rights are always tempered by the law)
Bill of rights 1960 - many unwritten so parliament legislated the common law rights BUT - because of Duplessis (padlock law - locked building till they figured out stuff) and FLQ crisis in 1960s (riots etc caused invocation of the war measures act -> martial law but the WMA superseded the bill of rights and led to need for constitutionally protected rights which were implemented with the charter of rights and freedoms (WMA was replaced by emergencies act in 1988 which also has to be tempered by the charter).
didn\'t decide aboriginal rights or QC distinct society status - meech lake and charlottetown accords tried to fix it but couldn\'t be finalized. - BNA act also
- decreed s 91 federal powers - where fed gov can legislate and s. 92 provincial powers.
- repatriation
- const act 1982 gave power to the canadian gov to amend its own constitution instead of requiring authorization from the UK government.