Canada Act 1982 - Enactment of The Act

Enactment of The Act

The Canada Act was the last request of the Canadian government to amend the country's constitution. After unpromising negotiations with the provincial governments, Pierre Trudeau eventually began to hope that the federal Parliament could unilaterally patriate the constitution. The Supreme Court of Canada ruled in the Patriation Reference that provincial consent was not technically needed, but that substantial consent from the provinces was needed according to constitutional convention. Trudeau succeeded in convincing nine provinces out of ten by adding the Notwithstanding Clause to limit the application of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms as a result of discussions during a First Ministers' conference in November 1981.

Aside from some objections from British MPs who protested Canada's past mistreatment of Quebec and Aboriginal peoples (as recalled with frustration by Jean Chrétien in his memoirs Straight from the Heart), there was little opposition from the British government to passing the Act. However, new research into documents of the Thatcher 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, which until that time had always been a core feature of every government practicing the Westminster system.

Through section 2 of the Canada Act 1982, the United Kingdom ended its involvement with further amendments to the Canadian constitution.