Canadian Constitution Research Paper

The Canadian Constitution is the fundamental documents that help to guide the Canadian people and govern the different governments throughout Canada. These documents were created to unite the country together during its time of confederation along with helping to create unity for any of the new provinces that would continue to join the confederation of Canada up until the late 1990s. For many Canadians, however, it has begun to seem as though these once unifying documents are now creating more of a divide around the country rather than unification; this divide can often be seen throughout many of the Quebec separatist movements that have occurred over generations. This creation of a divide across the country, mainly in Quebec, has shown that

The documents that are included are: Constitution Act, 1867, Formal Amendments, British Statues, Canadian Statues, Constitution Act, 1982, Judicial Decision and Constitutional Conventions. The Constitution Act, 1867 – previously known as the British North America Act, 1867 – was the first formal agreement that created the Dominion of Canada and was more for the operation of the dominion and less about the rights of the citizens. The formal amendments began to be added as the years pressed on, and are used to change anything that was brought to the attention of the government as being a problem or have been forgotten. Following years of amendments and restructuring the government came up with the Constitution Act, 1982 that was created to help better show the divide between the powers that the governments held and establish the rights and freedoms of the Canadian

There has been many times that the Quebec separatists’ movements have fought to have the province of Quebec removed from the confederation because they feel that the constitution does not properly support Quebecers needs. The separatists’ have been fighting to “recognize the francophone population in Quebec as a ‘nation’ or ‘distinct society.’” To have this level of recognition though for Quebec in the constitution there would have to be a major amendment made or a whole reworking of the constitution. When the Constitution Act, 1982 Quebec had major problems with it because the decisions “were made without Quebec’s consent.” The lack of consent has made many Quebecers mad about the Constitution because it changed a major part of Canadian law without the consent of one of the largest provinces. The fact that they were left out of such an influential decision means that it would be hard to get Quebec on board for any time of constitution change even if it might benefit them in the