The Canada Act 1982 (1982 c. 11; french: Loi de 1982 sur le Canada) is an act of the

Parliament of the United Kingdom The Parliament of the United Kingdom is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of Westminster, London. It alone possesses legislative suprema ...

and one of the enactments which make up the

Constitution of Canada The Constitution of Canada (french: Constitution du 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 a ...

. It was enacted at the request of the Senate and

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. T ...

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. Annexed as Schedule B to the act is the text of the ''

Constitution Act, 1982 The ''Constitution Act, 1982'' (french: link=no, Loi constitutionnelle de 1982) is a part of the Constitution of Canada.Formally enacted as Schedule B of the ''Canada Act 1982'', enacted by the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Section 60 of t ...

'', in both of Canada's official languages (i.e. English and French). Because of the requirements of official bilingualism, the body of the ''Canada Act'' itself is also set out in French in Schedule A to the act, which is declared by s. 3 to have "the same authority in Canada as the English version thereof".

History

Canada's modern political history as a union of previously separate provinces began with the ''

British North America Act, 1867 The ''Constitution Act, 1867'' (french: Loi constitutionnelle de 1867),''The Constitution Act, 1867'', 30 & 31 Victoria (U.K.), c. 3, http://canlii.ca/t/ldsw retrieved on 2019-03-14. originally enacted as the ''British North America Act, 186 ...

'' (officially called the ''Constitution Act, 1867,'' in Canada). This act combined the

Province of Canada The Province of Canada (or the United Province of Canada or the United Canadas) was a British colony in North America from 1841 to 1867. Its formation reflected recommendations made by John Lambton, 1st Earl of Durham, in the Report on th ...

(now

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central C ...

and

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

) with

Nova Scotia Nova Scotia ( ; ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. Nova Scotia is Latin for "New Scotland". Most of the population are native Eng ...

and

New Brunswick New Brunswick (french: Nouveau-Brunswick, , locally ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. It is the only province with both English and ...

into a

Dominion The term ''Dominion'' is used to refer to one of several self-governing nations of the British Empire. "Dominion status" was first accorded to Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Newfoundland, South Africa, and the Irish Free State at the 192 ...

within the

British Empire The British Empire was composed of the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading posts e ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

adopted a

Westminster Westminster is an area of Central London, part of the wider City of Westminster. The area, which extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street, has many visitor attractions and historic landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, B ...

-style government with a Parliament of Canada. A

governor general Governor-general (plural ''governors-general''), or governor general (plural ''governors general''), is the title of an office-holder. In the context of governors-general and former British colonies, governors-general are appointed as viceroy ...

fulfilled the constitutional duties of the British sovereign on Canadian soil. Similar arrangements applied within each province. Despite this autonomy, the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

still had the power to legislate for Canada, and Canada was thus still legally a self-governing British dominion. The Statute of Westminster 1931 restricted the British Parliament's power to legislate for Canada, unless the Dominion requested and consented to Imperial legislation. This had the effect to increased Canada's sovereignty. The

British North America (No. 2) Act, 1949 The British North America Acts 1867–1975 are a series of Act of Parliament, Acts of Parliament that were at the core of the constitution of Canada. Most were enacted by the Parliament of the United Kingdom and some by the Parliament of Canad ...

, was also passed by the British Parliament, giving the Parliament of Canada significant constitutional amending powers. However, with Canada's agreement at the time, under s. 7(1) of the Statute of Westminster, the British Parliament also retained the power to amend the key Canadian constitutional statutes, namely the British North America Acts. In effect, an act of the ''British'' Parliament was required to make certain changes to the Canadian constitution. Delay in the patriation of the Canadian constitution was due in large part to the lack of agreement concerning a method for amending the constitution that would be acceptable to all of the provinces, particularly Quebec.

Enactment

The ''Canada Act 1982'' was passed by the

in response to the request from the Canadian Senate and

to end Britain's authority and transfer the authority for amending the Constitution of Canada to the federal and provincial governments. After unpromising negotiations with the provincial governments, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau announced that the federal government would unilaterally patriate the Constitution from Britain. Manitoba, Newfoundland and Quebec responded by posing references to the provincial courts of appeal, challenging the federal government's power to seek unilateral amendments from Britain. In September 1981, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled in the '' Patriation Reference'' that provincial consent was not legally necessary, but to do so without substantial consent would be contrary to a longstanding constitutional convention. Trudeau succeeded in convincing nine provinces out of ten to consent to patriation by agreeing to the addition of a Notwithstanding Clause to limit the application of the ''

Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms The ''Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms'' (french: Charte canadienne des droits et libertés), often simply referred to as the ''Charter'' in Canada, is a bill of rights entrenched in the Constitution of Canada, forming the first part ...

'' as a result of discussions during a First Ministers' conference and other minor changes in November 1981. In the UK, 44

members of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

voted against the act, including 24

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...

and 16 Labour MPs, citing concerns over Canada's past mistreatment of Quebec and Aboriginal peoples (as recalled with frustration by Jean Chrétien in his memoirs ''Straight from the Heart''); overall there was little opposition from the British government to passing the act. However, new research into documents of the

Margaret Thatcher Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher (; 13 October 19258 April 2013) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. She was the first female British prime ...

government indicate that Britain had serious concerns about the inclusion of the ''Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms'' within the ''Canada Act''. Part of this concern stemmed from letters of protest the British received about it from provincial actors, but also because the Charter undermined the principle of

parliamentary supremacy Parliamentary sovereignty, also called parliamentary supremacy or legislative supremacy, is a concept in the constitutional law of some parliamentary democracies. It holds that the legislative body has absolute sovereignty and is supreme over all ...

, which until that time had always been a core feature of every government practising the Westminster system. Through section 2 of the ''Canada Act 1982'', the United Kingdom ended its involvement with further amendments to the Canadian constitution. Amendments to the Constitution now must be made under the various amending formulas set out in Part V of the ''Constitution Act, 1982''.

Proclamation

The ''Canada Act 1982'' received

royal assent Royal assent is the method by which a monarch formally approves an act of the legislature, either directly or through an official acting on the monarch's behalf. In some jurisdictions, royal assent is equivalent to promulgation, while in oth ...

on March 29 in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

, but it did not take full effect immediately. Canada's ''Constitution Act, 1982,'' was proclaimed in force by Elizabeth II as

Queen of Canada The monarchy of Canada is Canada's form of government embodied by the Canadian sovereign and head of state. It is at the core of Canada's constitutional Canadian federalism, federal structure and Westminster system, Westminster-style Parliamentar ...

on April 17 on

Parliament Hill Parliament Hill (french: Colline du Parlement, colloquially known as The Hill, is an area of Crown land on the southern banks of the Ottawa River in downtown Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Its Gothic revival suite of buildings, and their archit ...

in Ottawa. The proclamation marked the end of a long process and efforts by many successive governments to patriate the Constitution. The proclamation brought into force the new amending formula, ending any role for the British Parliament in Canadian law, and implemented the ''Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms''. The monarch's constitutional powers and roles over Canada were not affected by the act. Canada has complete

sovereignty Sovereignty is the defining authority within individual consciousness, social construct, or territory. Sovereignty entails hierarchy within the state, as well as external autonomy for states. In any state, sovereignty is assigned to the perso ...

as an independent country, however, and the King's role as monarch of Canada is separate from his role as the British monarch or the monarch of any of the other Commonwealth realms. Canada, like some other Commonwealth nations, maintains the King as

head of state A head of state (or chief of state) is the public persona who officially embodies a state Foakes, pp. 110–11 " he head of statebeing an embodiment of the State itself or representatitve of its international persona." in its unity and l ...

References

Note

External links