POLSCI 1G06 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Minority Language, Amen, Supreme Court Act
13 views4 pages
14 Oct 2015
School
Department
Course
Professor
The Canadian Constitution
•Outline the bedrock principles of a state
•Establish relationships between levels of government
•Relationships between citizens and government
•Technically speaking, not a single document- it is made up of a number of different
components- some written, some unwritten
Sources:
1. The Constitution Act, 1867 (Formerly British North America Act, 1867)
•Lays out many foundations of Canadian state, it is silent on others
•Brief on executive power and the judiciary (nothing explicit on PM, nothing about
Supreme Court either)
•Very little explicit protection of individual rights (unlike US Bill of Rights)
•Doesn't contain any express provisions by which it can be amended
2. Amendments to Constitution Act, 1867 (most by British parliament, some by Canadian
parliament)
3. British Statutes and Orders in Council
•E.g. Statute of Westminster, 1937
4. Organic Canadian Statutes
•Supreme Court Act
•Indian Act
•More general rules that bind governments- not just about day to day issues- they're
more important
5. Constitution Act, 1982
•Signed by every province except Quebec- it's bound by it but they still didn't sign it
•It's in this that we find the Charter of Rights and Freedoms
6. Judicial Decisions
•Usually included as part of the constitution because they "clarify or alter the meaning
of the Constitution"
•Constitution in practice is subjective- judiciary determines what the constitution
actually means- they can create and take away rights, based on interpretation
7. Constitutional Conventions
•Non-written part of the Constitution
•Conventions- long established practices considered to be binding upon present and
future government
•They're not "enforceable by the court" though- even while the courts may recognize
their existence
-They define the basic nature of the state and the distribution of political power, so
Constitutions are subject to constant political pressure
-There are 3 primary political tensions that have driven constitutional change in Canada
1. The role of the provinces in amending the Constitution