The Icelandic Canadian - 01.12.1964, Blaðsíða 50

48
THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
Winter 1964
of his followers. Finally, armed con-
flict broke out in Upper and Lower
Canada, but it was quickly and brutal-
ly crushed. However, in 1841, a new
constitution made it possible for the
cabinet members to be chosen from
among the elected representatives. In
1848, the parliament of a united Can-
ada saw the majority Reformist party
called to form a government. The
principle of responsible government
was granted in 1849 and indemnities
were voted to the victims of the 1837
rebellion. Lord Elgin, Governor-Gen-
eral of Canada, gave his assent to the
indemnities legislation over the ob-
jection of royalists who felt the Can-
adian parliament’s action should be
subject to Royal assent in England.
The outbreak of the American Civil
War in 1861, and the attacks on Can-
adian soil by bands of Fenians (Irish
revolutionists) operating from the
United States, were a background for
mounting talks of setting up a Con-
federation of English colonies in Can-
ada. A constitution was drafted by Eng-
lish and French speaking represent-
atives, submitted to the British Parli-
ament, and adopted under the title of
the British North America Act.
Quebec accepted Confederation but
saw in it essentially a decentralized
form of federalism. On the other hand,
the federal authorities, led by Sir John
A MacDonald, maintained that the ef-
fect of the Act was to place the prov-
inces in a position of satellites of the
central government.
Writing in the Canadian Bar Re-
view’s complete issue of “Nationhood
and the Constitution” (1951), Louis-
Philippe Pigeon, prominent Quebec
lawyer, quotes the Judicial Committee
of the Imperial Privy Council in sup-
port of the Quebec view. Rendering a
decision in a case involving the feder-
al authorities and the government of
New Brunswick, the Imperial Court of
final resort wrote: “The Federal gov-
ernment maintained that the effect
of the BNA Act has been to sever all
connections between the Crown and
the provinces and to make the govern-
ment of the Dominion the only gov-
ernment of Her Majesty in North Am-
erica; and 4o reduce the provinces to
the rank of independent municipal
institutions. For these propositions . . .
their Lordships have been unable to
find either principle or authority . . .
and a Lieutenant-Governor is as much
the representative of Her Majesty for
all purposes of provincial government
as the Govenor-General himself is for
all purposes of Dominion govern-
ment.”
Mr. Pigeon concludes his article
with this observation: “A great volume
of criticism has been heaped upon the
Privy Council and the Supreme Court
on the ground that their decisions rest
on a narrow and technical construction
of the BNA Act. This contention is ill-
founded. They recognize the implicit
fluidity of any constitution by allow-
ing for emergencies . . . they staunch-
ly refuse to let our federal government
be changed gradually, by one device or
another, to a legislative union. In do-
ing so, they are preserving the essential
condition of the Canadian Confeder-
ation.”
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