CANADA ACT

also called Constitution Act 1982, Canada's constitution approved by the British Parliament on March 25, 1982, and proclaimed by Queen Elizabeth II on April 17, 1982, making Canada wholly independent. The document contains the original statute that established the Canadian Confederation in 1867 (the British North America Act), the amendments made to it by the British Parliament over the years, and new material resulting from negotiations between the federal and provincial governments between 1980 and 1982. The new constitution represented a compromise between Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau's vision of one Canada with two official languages and the particular concerns of the provinces. A novel part of the document was the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. This set down 34 rights to be observed across Canada, ranging from freedom of religion to linguistic and educational rights based on the test of numbers. Many of the rights could be overridden by a notwithstanding clause, which allowed both the federal Parliament and the provincial legislatures to set aside guarantees in the Charter. Designed to preserve parliamentary supremacy, a basic political principle in Canada, notwithstanding clauses would have to be renewed every five years to remain in force. Thus the Charter of Rights was not fully entrenched in the Canadian constitution as the Bill of Rights was in that of the United States. The Canada Act also contained a formula for its amendment in Canada, a subject that had defeated attempts to gain agreement on a new constitution as far back as 1927. Under the formula, resolutions of the Canadian Parliament, accompanied by the concurrence of two-thirds of the provinces (7) representing at least 50 percent of the country's population, would be sufficient to approve a constitutional amendment. Other sections of the act recognized the aboriginal and treaty rights of native peoples, strengthened the provinces' jurisdiction over their natural resources, and committed the central government to provide public services of reasonable quality across Canada by ensuring revenue (equalization) payments to the provinces. The constitutional changes having been extensively discussed in Canada since their presentation in 1980, and their mode of procedure having secured judicial endorsement in 1981, there was little opposition when they came before the British Parliament early in 1982. All major British parties supported them, although some members of Parliament felt that native rights were inadequately protected. Queen Elizabeth II gave royal assent to the Canada Act on March 29, 115 years to the day after Queen Victoria, her great-great-grandmother, had approved the federation act of 1867. Thus the last legal tie with Great Britain was severed, and Canada became a fully sovereign state. Although the people of Quebec were deeply divided over the merits of the new constitution, the Quebec governmentstrongly separatistwent ahead with its opposition to the changes. The Quebec government took its case to the courts, but the Quebec Court of Appeal, on April 7, 1982, held that Quebec did not possess a veto over constitutional change, even if it affected provincial jurisdiction. Again, on September 8, the Superior Court of Quebec held that sections of Quebec's controversial language law, Bill 101, were unconstitutional because they conflicted with the new Charter of Rights. Bill 101 required English-speaking Canadian parents educated outside Quebec to send their children to French schools if they moved to Quebec. The Charter of Rights, on the other hand, guarantees minority language education in all provinces for children of Canadian citizens where numbers warrant the establishment of schools. Quebec's claim to a constitutional veto was decisively rejected by the Supreme Court of Canada, 90, on Dec. 6, 1982. Additional reading Geography General works Comprehensive, up-to-date general surveys are provided in government publications such as The Canada Year Book and its condensed version, Canada, a Portrait (biennial). The Canadian Encyclopaedia, 2nd ed., 4 vol. (1988), is an invaluable reference work on all aspects of the country. Geoffrey J. Matthews and Robert Morrow, Jr., Canada and the World: An Atlas Resource (1985), contains maps, graphs, cartograms, tables, and text. The National Atlas of Canada, 5th ed. (1985 ), is an ongoing publication that consists of singly published maps providing socioeconomic, cultural, and environmental information. Other general sources include John Warkentin (ed.), Canada: A Geographical Interpretation (1968); L.D. McCann (ed.), Heartland and Hinterland: A Geography of Canada, 2nd ed. (1987); J. Lewis Robinson, Concepts and Themes in the Regional Geography of Canada, rev. ed. (1989); and William Metcalfe (ed.), Understanding Canada: A Multidisciplinary Introduction to Canadian Studies (1982), containing chapters written by various subject specialists. The land J. Brian Bird, The Natural Landscapes of Canada: A Study in Regional Earth Science, 2nd ed. (1980), is an in-depth treatment of the subject. Tim Fitzharris and John Livingston, Canada, a Natural History (1988), describes and interprets the natural environment through photographs and commentary. Human Activity and the Environment (1986), prepared by Statistics Canada, is a large volume of statistical information about the relationship of the people and the natural environment. On climate, see F. Kenneth Hare and Morley K. Thomas, Climate Canada, 2nd ed. (1979). J.S. Rowe, Forest Regions of Canada (1972), is invaluable for the study of natural vegetation; while R.C. Hosie, Native Trees of Canada, 8th ed. (1979), offers a well-illustrated source for the identification of tree species. A.W.F. Banfield, The Mammals of Canada (1974); and W. Earl Godfrey, The Birds of Canada, rev. ed. (1986), are two well-illustrated volumes. The people Diamond Jenness, The Indians of Canada, 7th ed. (1977); and E. Palmer Patterson, The Canadian Indian: A History Since 1500 (1971), are authoritative works on the native peoples. Bruce Alden Cox (ed.), Native People, Native Lands: Canadian Indians, Inuit and Metis (1987), is a later collection of writings. Leo Driedger (ed.), The Canadian Ethnic Mosaic: A Quest for Identity (1978), deals with the social and economic problems of minority groups. Gerald L. Gold and Marc-Adlard Tremblay, Communities and Culture in French Canada (1973), provides information on basic institutions and cultural dynamics. The economy Anthony Blackbourn and Robert G. Putnam, The Industrial Geography of Canada (1984); and O.F.G. Sitwell and N.R.M. Seifried, The Regional Structure of the Canadian Economy (1984), discuss the geophysical basis of the country's economy. Ralph R. Krueger and Bruce Mitchell (eds.), Managing Canada's Renewable Resources (1977); and Bruce Mitchell and W.R. Derrick Sewell (ed.), Canadian Resource Policies: Problems and Prospects (1981), contain readings on resource management issues. Wallace Clement and Glen Williams (eds.), The New Canadian Political Economy (1989), surveys industrialization, resource policies, the role of the state, and other topics. Administration and social conditions R. MacGregor Dawson, Dawson's The Government of Canada, 6th ed., rev. by Norman Ward (1987), is a standard survey. Robert Bothwell, Ian Drummond, and John English, Canada Since 1945: Power, Politics, and Provincialism, rev. ed. (1989), offers a witty and sometimes caustic commentary on social, economic, and political issues. Michael A. Goldberg and John Mercer, The Myth of the North American City: Continentalism Challenged (1986), explores the differences between Canadian and American cities. John Porter, The Vertical Mosaic: An Analysis of Social Class and Power in Canada (1965, reprinted 1971), is a major study of social conditions. Cultural life Carl F. Klinck (ed.), Literary History of Canada: Canadian Literature in English, 2nd ed., 3 vol. (1976), is a monumental survey; William Toye (ed.), The Oxford Companion to Canadian Literature (1983), is also worth consulting. The visual arts are treated in Nancy-Lou Patterson, Canadian Native Art: Arts and Crafts of Canadian Indians and Eskimos (1973); and Dennis Reid, A Concise History of Canadian Painting, 2nd ed. (1988). For the performing arts, useful works are George A. Proctor, Canadian Music of the Twentieth Century (1980); Eugene Benson and L.W. Conolly, English-Canadian Theatre (1987); douard G. Rinfret, Le Thtre canadien d'expression franaise: rpertoire analytique des origines nos jours, 4 vol. (197578); and Eugene Benson and L.W. Conolly (eds.), The Oxford Companion to Canadian Theatre (1989). Leon Whiteson, Modern Canadian Architecture (1983), analyzes trends in architectural design. Ralph R. Krueger History Broad surveys include William L. Morton, The Kingdom of Canada: A General History from the Earliest Times, 2nd ed. (1969); Kenneth McNaught, The History of Canada (1970); and Gerald Friesen, The Canadian Prairies: A History (1984). Specific subjects, still in a broad chronological framework, are explored in Alison Prentice et al., Canadian Women: A History (1988); Olive Patricia Dickason, Canada's First Nations: A History of Founding Peoples from the Earliest Times (1992), a thematic look at native groups and factors which affected them in Canada, both before and after 1867; Bryan D. Palmer, Working Class Experience: Rethinking the History of Canadian Labour, 18001991, 2nd ed. (1992); Michael Bliss, Northern Enterprise: Five Centuries of Canadian Business (1987); J.M.S. Careless (ed.), Colonists & Canadiens, 17601867 (1971, reprinted 1980); and J.M.S. Careless and R. Craig Brown (eds.), The Canadians, 18671967 (1967, reissued 1980). The historical development of constitutional power is related in J.R. Mallory, The Structure of Canadian Government, rev. ed. (1984). Geoffrey J. Matthews (ed.), Historical Atlas of Canada, 3 vol. (198793), presents maps covering such subjects as ethnography, archaeology, and economics.A comprehensive history of the French period is Gustave Lanctt, A History of Canada, 3 vol. (196365; originally published in French, 196064). Bruce G. Trigger, Natives and Newcomers: Canada's Heroic Age Reconsidered (1985), reexamines the contact period between natives and European settlers. An additional study of the preconfederation period is W.J. Eccles, The Canadian Frontier, 15341760, rev. ed. (1983). To understand the colonies that became Canada in the British Empire, the following are most useful: Harold A. Innis, The Fur Trade in Canada: An Introduction to Canadian Economic History, rev. ed. (1956, reissued 1973); and Arthur J. Ray, Indians in the Fur Trade: Their Role as Trappers, Hunters, and Middlemen in the Lands Southwest of Hudson Bay, 16601870 (1974), and The Canadian Fur Trade in the Industrial Age (1990). W.S. MacNutt, The Atlantic Provinces: The Emergence of Colonial Society, 17121857 (1965), is also of interest. Helen Taft Manning, The Revolt of French Canada, 18001835: A Chapter in the History of the British Commonwealth (1962); Chester Martin, Foundations of Canadian Nationhood (1955); and J.E. Hodgetts, Pioneer Public Service: An Administrative History of the United Canadas, 18411867 (1955), treat the achievement of self-government. Further studies of 19th-century Canada are Ben Forster and Jakob J.B. Forster, A Conjunction of Interests: Business, Politics, and Tariffs, 18251879 (1986); and W. Peter Ward, Courtship, Love, and Marriage in Nineteenth-Century English Canada (1990).The story of confederation has been told from various perspectives by Ged Martin (ed.), The Causes of Canadian Confederation (1990), challenging the notion that confederation was inevitable and suggesting that not every colony was treated fairly in the deal; Allan Greer and Ian Radforth (eds.), Colonial Leviathan: State Formation in Mid-Nineteenth Century Canada (1992); Donald Creighton, The Road to Confederation: The Emergence of Canada, 18631867 (1964, reprinted 1976); William L. Morton, The Critical Years: The Union of British North America, 18571873 (1964, reprinted 1977); Peter B. Waite, The Life and Times of Confederation, 18641867: Politics, Newspapers, and the Union of British North America, 2nd ed. (1962); and Robin W. Winks, Canada and the United States: The Civil War Years (1960, reprinted 1988). Foreign relations are examined by John Bartlett Brebner, North Atlantic Triangle: The Interplay of Canada, the United States, and Great Britain (1945, reissued 1970); Edgar W. McInnis, The Unguarded Frontier: A History of American-Canadian Relations (1942, reissued 1970); James G. Eayrs, The Art of the Possible: Government and Foreign Policy in Canada (1961), and Northern Approaches: Canada and the Search for Peace (1961); Donald Creighton, Canada's First Century, 18671967 (1970); and Charles P. Stacey, Canada and the Age of Conflict: A History of Canadian External Policies, 2 vol. (197781), covering the period between 1867 and 1948.Robert Craig Brown and Ramsay Cook, Canada, 18961921: A Nation Transformed (1974), is a study of the effects upon Canada of the boom that opened the 20th century and of World War I. Economic, political, and social changes in 20th-century Canada are explored in Doug Owram, The Government Generation: Canadian Intellectuals and the State, 19001945 (1986), an examination of the growth of the Canadian state and the civil service profession during this period; Veronica Strong-Boag, The New Day Recalled: Lives of Girls and Women in English Canada, 19191939, rev. ed. (1993), a look at politics and gender in the years between the wars, challenging the idea that the women's movement lost its spirit after World War I; John Herd Thompson and Allen Seager, Canada, 19221939: Decades of Discord (1985); Robert Bothwell, Ian Drummond, and John English, Canada, 19001945 (1987); Ian MacPherson, Each for All: A History of the Co-operative Movement in English Canada, 19001945 (1979); Grant S. McClellan (ed.), Canada in Transition (1977); and J.L. Granatstein, Canada, 19571967: The Years of Uncertainty and Innovation (1986). David J. Bercuson Administration and social conditions Parliament Buildings (background centre) rise above the Rideau Canal in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Canada is an independent federal parliamentary state, the head of which is the reigning monarch of the United Kingdom. The state was established by the British North America Act of 1867, which united the colonies of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Canada into the provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Quebec, and Ontario. Rupert's Land and the Northwest Territories were acquired from the Hudson's Bay Company in 1869, and from them Manitoba was created and admitted to the Confederation as a province in 1870; its extent was enlarged by adding further areas from the territories in 1881 and 1912. The colonies of British Columbia and Prince Edward Island were admitted as provinces in 1871 and 1873, respectively. In 1905 Saskatchewan and Alberta were created from what remained of the Northwest Territories and admitted to the Confederation as provinces. In 1912 the provinces of Quebec and Ontario were enlarged by adding areas from the Northwest Territories. In 1949 Newfoundland and its dependency, Labrador, joined the Confederation following a popular referendum. The Yukon Territory was separated from the Northwest Territories in 1898, and Nunavut was created from the eastern part of the territories in 1999. Thus, Canada now consists of 10 provinces and 3 territories, which vary greatly in size. An act legislated by the British Parliament and proclaimed by Queen Elizabeth II on April 17, 1982, formally ended all vestiges of British control and made Canada responsible for all changes to its own constitution. Government The Constitution Act is not an exhaustive statement of the laws and rules by which Canada is governed. The constitution of Canada in its broadest sense includes other statutes of the United Kingdom; statutes of the Parliament of Canada relating to such matters as the succession to the throne, the demise of the crown, the governor-general, the Senate, the House of Commons, electoral districts, elections, and royal style and titles; and statutes of provincial legislatures relating to provincial legislative assemblies. Many of the rules and procedures of Parliament are not laid down in the Constitution Act but are established by convention and precedent, often that of the United Kingdom. The preservation of both the English and French languages is safeguarded by the provision that either language may be used in all institutions (including the courts) of the Parliament and government of Canada and in all institutions of the National Assembly of Quebec, the legislature of New Brunswick, and their governments. The act also guarantees to Quebec the right to a Roman Catholic school system under Roman Catholic control and to exclusive jurisdiction over property and civil rights and safeguards preservation of the French system of civil law in the province. When the constitution was patriated to Canada in 1982, it was amended to include a Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which provides greater detail than the original charter. Further amendments of the constitution require agreement of the federal government and seven provinces that together represent 50 percent of the country's people. All the provinces approved the constitution except Quebec. The province of Quebec refused to approve the constitution because it infringed on its policy related to the restriction of the use of the English language, did not give Quebec a veto on future constitutional changes, and did not officially recognize Quebec as a distinct society.