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The Labour Conventions Case Revisited

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 March 2016

Gerard V. La Forest
Gerard V. La Forest*
Affiliation:
Law Reform Commission of Canada
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Extract

So much has been written about the Labour Conventions case that one hesitates to add to the flow of ink. But the bulk of these writings simply reflects the diametrically opposed views about the correctness of the decision on both technical and practical grounds. Most commentators from English Canada have bewailed the decision in this case that power to implement treaties in Canada is divided between the federal parliament and provincial legislatures according to the usual division of legislative power. On the other hand, French Canadians overwhelmingly support the decision. Recent literature has concentrated on techniques that can be employed to secure federal-provincial co-operation in effecting international action. Still, little notice has been taken of gradually evolving doctrine in the Supreme Court of Canada that should facilitate the exercise of Canada’s sovereign status in the international sphere, whatever the ultimate fate of the Labour Conventions case. The purpose of this article is to examine the nature of this evolution and to suggest possible paths for future developments.

Type
Articles
Information
Canadian Yearbook of International Law/Annuaire canadien de droit international , Volume 12 , 1975 , pp. 137 - 152
Copyright
Copyright © The Canadian Council on International Law / Conseil Canadien de Droit International, representing the Board of Editors, Canadian Yearbook of International Law / Comité de Rédaction, Annuaire Canadien de Droit International 1975

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References

1 Attorney-General for Canada v. Attorney General for Ontario, [1937] A.C. 326.

2 See, inter alia, Cronkite, F.C., “The Social Legislation References” (1937), 15 Can. Bar Rev. 478 Google Scholar; MacDonald, Vincent C., “The Constitution Seventy Years After” (1937), 15 Can. Bar Rev. 401 Google Scholar; MacKenzie, N.A.M., “Canada and the Treaty-Making Power” (1937), 15 Can. Bar Rev. 436 Google Scholar; Hendry, , Treaties and Federal Constitutions (Washington, 1955), c. 8Google Scholar; Scott, F.R., Correspondence (1956), Can. Bar Rev. 114 Google Scholar; Szablowski, G.J., “Creation and Implementation of Treaties in Canada” (1956), 34 Can. Bar Rev. 28 Google Scholar; Morris, Gerald L., “The Treaty-Making Power: A Canadian Dilemma” (1967), 45 Can. Bar Rev. 478 Google Scholar; cf., McWhinney, Edward, “Canadian Federalism and the Foreign Affairs and Treaty Power: The Impact of Quebec’s Quiet Revolution” (1969), 7 Canadian Yearbook of International Law 3.Google Scholar

3 See, inter alia, Jacques-Yvan, Morin “La conclusion d’accords internationaux par les provinces canadiennes à la lumière du droit comparé” (1965), 3 Canadian Yearbook of International Law 127, at 137Google Scholar; Jacomy-Millette, A.M., L’Introduction et l’Application des Traités Internationaux au Canada, (Paris, 1971) 75 Google Scholar et seq.; André Dufour, “Fédéralisme canadien et droit international”, in Macdonald, , Morris, and Johnston, (eds.), Canadian Perspectives on International Law and Organization (Toronto, 1974), 72.Google Scholar

4 See, inter alia, Fitzgerald, Gerald F., “Educational and Cultural Agreements and Ententes: France, Canada, and Quebec — Birth of New Treaty-Making Technique for Federal States” (1966), 60 Am. J. Int’l L. 529 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Sabourin, , “La participation des provinces canadiennes aux organisations internationales” (1965), 3 Canadian Yearbook of International Law 73.Google Scholar

5 [1933] A.C. 156; see also Re: Offshore Mineral Rights of Britùh Columbia, [1967] S.C.R. 792.

6 For a review of this development see La Forest, , “May the Provinces Legislate in Violation of International Law?” (1961), 39 Can. Bar Rev. 78.Google Scholar

7 See R.S.C., 1970, Appendices, 445, at 446.

8 Re Weekly Rest in Industrial Undertakings Act, [1936] S.C.R. 461.

9 For a review of the literature taking the opposing view, see Jacomy-Millette, supra, note 3, at 83 et seq.

10 Supra, note 5.

11 [1943] S.C.R. 208.

12 Ibid., at 223.

13 Ibid., at 249.

14 Supra, note 6.

15 Most of these are referred to in the British North America Act, 1867, 30 and 31 Vict., c. 3, s. 91(1) (Imp.).

16 See Attorney General for Ontario v. Attorney General for Canada, [1912] A.C. 571. See R.St.J. Macdonald, “The Relationship Between International Law and Domestic Law in Canada”, in Macdonald, Morris and Johnston, supra, note 3, at 88, who rejects the view of provincial incapacity on this ground.

17 Supra, note ι, at 352.

18 See R. v. Bottrill, Ex parte Kueckenmeister, [1947] 1 K.B. 41.

19 See The Arantzazu Mendt, [1939] A.C. 256.

20 Engelke v. Musmann, [1928] A.C. 433.

21 The Fagernes, [1927] P. 311. See La Forest, , “The Delimitation of National Territory: Re Dominion Coal Company and the County of Cape Breton” (1964), 2 Canadian Yearbook of International Law 233.Google Scholar

22 [1956] S.C.R. 618.

23 Ibid., at 625.

24 Ibid., at 626.

25 Ibid., at 621. In Johannesson et. al. v. Rural Municipality West St. Paul et. al., [1952] 1 S.C.R. 292, the tenor of his judgment indicates no disapproval of the Labour Conventions case. Those who attribute a wider meaning to this statement may, of course, derive additional comfort from remarks in other judgments, particularly that of Rinfret C.J., and from the extra-judicial statements of Lord Wright, Correspondence (1955), 33 Can. Bar Rev. 1123, at 1125 and Rand, J. in “Some Aspects of Canadian Constitutionalism” (1960), 38 Can. Bar Rev. 135, at 143–4.Google Scholar

26 Laskin, , Canadian Constitutional Law, 3rd ed. (Toronto, 1966), 291.Google Scholar

27 Supra, note 5.

28 Brossard, Jacques in Le Devoir, 22 November 1967, at 5, cols. 1–4Google Scholar; Head, , “The Canadian Offshore Minerals Reference” (1968), 18 U of T.L.J. 131 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; McWhinney, supra, note 2; Jacomy-Millette, supra, note 3, at 83 et seq.; Dufour, supra, note 3.

29 Supra, note 5, at 815–17.

30 Ibid., at 821.

31 (1970), 43 Aust. L.J.R. 275.

32 Ibid., at 294.

33 See Saint John v. Fraser Brace Overseas Corp., [1958] S.C.R. 263.

34 See Reference re Exemption of U.S. Forces from Proceedings in Canadian Courts, [1943] S.C.R. 483.

35 Haile Selassie v. Cable and Wireless Ltd., (No. 2), [1939] 1 Ch. 182.

36 See Fort Frances Pulp & Paper Co. Ltd., v. Manitoba Free Press Co. Ltd., [1923] A.C. 695.

37 See The Grace (1894), 4 Ex. CR. 283; R. v. Meikleham (1906), 11 O.L.R. 366; see also La Forest, supra, note 21.

38 Supra, note 22.

39 Supra, note 5.

40 See, inter alia, British North America Act, 1867, 30 & 31 Vict., c. 3, ss. 6, 7 (Imp.).

41 (1871), 34 & 35 Vict., c. 28 (Imp.); see La Forest, supra, note 21; Patenaude, Luce, Le Labrador à l’heure de la contestation (Montréal, 1972), at 109 Google Scholar et seq., who also interprets the Colonial Boundaries Act, 1895, 58 & 59, c. 14 (Imp.) as denying federal executive power to alter provincial boundaries.

42 Supra, note 1.

43 In re Regulation and Control of Aeronautics in Canada, [1932] A.C. 54; see Mackenzie, supra, note 2.

44 In re Regulation and Control of Radio Communications in Canada, [1932] A.C. 304.

45 See Laskin, , “Some International Legal Aspects of Federation: The Experience of Canada”, in Currie, D.P. (ed.) Federalism and the New Nations of Africa (Chicago, 1964), 389.Google Scholar

46 For similar views, see Morris, , “Canadian Federalism and International Law” in Macdonald, , Morris, and Johnston, , supra, note 3, at 55.Google Scholar

47 Supra, note 1, at 352.

48 For similar criticism see Wildhaber, Luzius, Treaty-Making Power and Constitution 295 (Basel, 1971).Google Scholar

49 Lederman, W.R., “Legislative Power to Implement Treaty Obligations in Canada” in The Political Process in Canada, Essays in Honour of R. MacGregor Dawson (Toronto, 1963), 171.Google Scholar

50 Supra, note 22.