FOREWORD
Consolidation of the Constitution Acts, 1867 to 1982
This consolidation contains the text of the Constitution Act, 1867 (formerly the
British North America Act, 1867), together with amendments made to it since its enactment,
and the text of the Constitution Act, 1982, as amended since its enactment.
The Constitution Act, 1982 contains the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms
and other provisions, including the procedure for amending the Constitution of
Canada.
The Constitution Act, 1982 also contains a schedule of repeals of certain constitutional
enactments and provides for the renaming of others. The British North America
Act, 1949, for example, is renamed as the Newfoundland Act. The new names of
these enactments are used in this consolidation, but their former names may be
found in the schedule.
The Constitution Act, 1982 was enacted as Schedule B to the Canada Act 1982,
1982, c. 11 (U.K.). It is set out in this consolidation as a separate Act after the
Constitution Act, 1867.
Amendment of the Constitution Act, 1867
The law embodied in the Constitution Act, 1867 has been altered many times otherwise
than by textual amendment, not only by the Parliament of the United Kingdom
but also by the Parliament of Canada and the legislatures of the provinces in
those cases where provisions of that Act are expressed to be subject to alteration by
Parliament or the legislatures. A consolidation of the Constitution Acts including
only those subsequent enactments that alter the text of the Act would therefore not
produce a true statement of the law. In preparing this consolidation, an attempt has
been made to reflect accurately the substance of the law contained in enactments
modifying the provisions of the Constitution Act, 1867, whether by textual amendment
or otherwise.
The various classes of enactments modifying the Constitution Act, 1867 have
been dealt with as follows:
I. Textual Amendments
1. Repeals
Repealed provisions (e.g. section 2) have been deleted from the text and quoted
in a footnote.
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2. Amendments
Amended provisions (e.g. section 4) are reproduced in the text in their amended
form and the original provisions are quoted in a footnote.
3. Additions
Added provisions (e.g. section 51A) are included in the text.
4. Substitutions
Substituted provisions (e.g. section 18) are included in the text and the former
provision is quoted in a footnote.
II. Non-textual Amendments
1. Alterations by United Kingdom Parliament
Provisions altered by the United Kingdom Parliament otherwise than by textual
amendment (e.g. section 21) are included in the text in their altered form and the
original provision is quoted in a footnote.
2. Additions by United Kingdom Parliament
Constitutional provisions added otherwise than by the insertion of additional provisions
in the Constitution Act, 1867 (e.g. provisions of the Constitution Act, 1871
authorizing Parliament to legislate for any territory not included in a province) are
not incorporated in the text but the additional provisions are quoted in an appropriate
footnote.
3. Alterations by Parliament of Canada
Provisions subject to alteration by the Parliament of Canada (e.g. section 37)
have been included in the text in their altered form, wherever possible, but where
this was not feasible (e.g. section 40) the original section has been retained in the
text and a footnote reference made to the Act of the Parliament of Canada effecting
the alteration.
4. Alterations by the Legislatures
Provisions subject to alteration by the legislatures of the provinces, either by
virtue of specific authority (e.g. sections 83 and 84) or by virtue of head 1 of section
92 (e.g. sections 70 and 72), have been included in the text in their original form but
the footnotes refer to the provincial enactments effecting the alteration. Amendments
to the provincial enactments are not noted; these may be found by consulting
the provincial statutes. In addition, only the enactments of the original provinces are
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referred to; corresponding enactments by the provinces that were created at a later
date are not noted.
Spent Provisions
Footnote references are made to those sections that are spent or probably spent.
For example, section 119 became spent by lapse of time and the footnote reference
indicates this. In turn, section 140 is probably spent, but short of examining all
statutes passed before Confederation there would be no way of ascertaining definitely
whether or not the section is spent; the footnote reference therefore indicates
that the section is probably spent.
General
The enactments of the United Kingdom Parliament and the Parliament of Canada,
and Orders in Council admitting territories, that are referred to in the footnotes may
be found in Appendix II of the Appendices to the Revised Statutes of Canada, 1985
and in the annual volumes of the Statutes of Canada.
There are some inconsistencies in the capitalization of nouns. It was originally
the practice to capitalize the first letter of all nouns in British statutes and the Constitution
Act, 1867 was so written, but this practice was discontinued and was never
followed in Canadian statutes. In the original provisions included in this consolidation,
nouns are written as they were enacted.

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