The Constitutional Documents

The Constitution’s “Documents” – Why Canada is the Way it is: A/ The Royal Proclamation of 1763: ended 150 years of war with France over “N. America.” 1) Said that Britain “owned” the French territories of the Great Lakes & Gulf of the St. Lawrence. 2) Declared that English laws and language and English religion (the Church of England AKA the Anglican Church) would prevail in the colonies. However: 1) French became the “working” language of most of the colonies 2) Catholicism (the Roman Catholic Church) was tolerated (Catholics were forbidden to hold senior public offices) Why? In 1763 there were 70,000 Francophones and only a few hundred protestant Anglophones. B/ the Quebec Act of 1774: said (again) that English Law would be in force in the colonies. But: in reality – they allowed the use of the French Civil Code (which is still used in Quebec today) - Roman Catholics could hold public office. ** Because of this Quebec Act some “loyalist Americans” left the United States and fled to the Maritimes. This increased the English speaking people in the colonies. C/ The Constitutional Act of 1791 - Divided the colony of Quebec into two parts: Upper Canada and Lower Canada. - Lower Canada kept British Criminal Law and the French Civil code - Upper Canada had both British Criminal Law and English Common Law. - All colonies of British North America granted some “representative” government.** only male landowners could elect representatives. The Bad: - The elected assemblies had little real power. - Thee governor (appointed by the King) held the real power and could overturn any local law he did not like.

The Rebellions of 1837-1838 There were many little ‘revolts” over this lack of control of their own colonies. So: 1840 Act of Union Lower and Upper Canada were united into one “elected assembly”, and the local “French” was used on a daily basis (this was one of those unwritten conventions) *** Nowhere, even today, is it written down that the Governor General must accept laws made by parliament – but that has never happened. That is “central” to Canada’s unwritten Constitution.