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Federalism and Unanimity: The Supreme Court and Constitutional Amendment*
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 November 2009
Abstract
The Supreme Court's decisions on constitutional amendment made possible and then sanctioned a political compromise which conflicts with the logic of the only provision of the BNA Act dealing with amendments to the division of powers. The implications of section 94 have been overlooked partly because judges are ill-disposed to arguments based upon the structure of the BNA Act, and partly because of Frank Scott's misleading essay on the subject. Scott's centralist interpretation of section 94 is untenable, largely because that section does not restrict provincial sovereignty or federalism but gives constitutional recognition to them. Section 94 also implies a formal amending procedure of unanimity: neither unilateral action by the federal Parliament nor substantial provincial consent has any application to the division of powers. Since the centralist interpretation of the Canadian constitution cannot be reconciled with a significant provision of the BNA Act, a conception of Canadian federalism is required which gives greater recognition to the constitutional autonomy of the provinces.
Résumé
Le jugement de la Cour Suprême sur I'amendement constitutionnel a rendu possible, puis sanctionné, un compromis politique en opposition avec la logique de la seule disposition de l'A.A.N.B. concemant les amendements au partage des pouvoirs. Les implications de I'article 94 ont été négligées en partie parce que les juges sont peu sensibles aux arguments concemant la structure de l'A.A.N.B. et en raison de l'interprétation centraliste de Frank Scott. L'interprétation dece dernier n'est pas fondée, principalement parce que cet article ne restreint pas le fédéralismea ou la souveraineé des provinces, mais lui donne une reconnaissance constitutionnelle. L'article comprend aussi une formule d'amendement exigeant l'unanimité: ni une intervention unilatérale du gouvernement fédéral, ni un accord avec plusieurs provinces ne convient à cette division des pouvoirs. Puisque cette interprétation centralisante de la Constitution canadienne n'est pas en accord avec les dispositions de l'A.A.N.B., il faut rechercher une vision du fédéralisme canadien qui reconnaisse une autonomie constitutionnelle aux provinces.
- Type
- Research Article
- Information
- Canadian Journal of Political Science/Revue canadienne de science politique , Volume 16 , Issue 4 , December 1983 , pp. 757 - 770
- Copyright
- Copyright © Canadian Political Science Association (l'Association canadienne de science politique) and/et la Société québécoise de science politique 1983
References
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2 Of contemporary textbook writers only McConnell, W. H., Commentary on the British North America Act (Toronto: Macmillan, 1977)Google Scholar discusses section 94 in any detail; but he does not address the issues raised in this article.
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8 Ibid..
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12 Newfoundland presents no special difficulties for this claim.
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18 Appeal Cases, 96.
19 Scott, Essays on the Constitution, 122.
20 Ibid.., 186.
21 Reference re Amendment of the Constitution of Canada, 125.
22 Scott, Essays on the Constitution, 117. For a similar view see McConnell, Commentary on the British North America Act, 299: and Citizens Insurance Company v. Parsons, 110, where it is suggested that “the province of Quebec is omitted. . . for the obvious reason that the law which governs property and civil rights in Quebec is in the main the French law.”
23 Scott, Essays on the Constitution, 114.
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35 Favreau, , The Amendment of the Constitution of Canada, 10–16.Google Scholar
36 The Quebec Court of Appeal decision on Quebec's veto (April 7, 1982: reprinted Le Devoir, April 14, 1982) dismissed section 94 for the somewhat unusual reason that the provision does not confer greater legislative power upon Quebec than the other provinces.
37 Justices Martland Ritchie, dissenting.
38 The Chief Justice and Justices Estey McIntyre, dissenting.
39 Reference re Attorney-General of Quebec and Attorney-General of Canada [1983] 140 Dominion Law Reports (3d) 385 at 402.
40 Reference re Amendment of the Constitution of Canada, 61.
41 Scott, Essays on the Constitution, 122.
42 Reference re Amendment of the Constitution of Canada, 125.