March 29 was the anniversary of one of the most significant events in Canadian legal history.<\/p>\n
Few would even be aware of this, though, since it\u2019s not an official holiday, no greeting cards are available and\u00a0there was little public acknowledgement of the 150th anniversary of the passage by the British Parliament of what was then known as the British North America Act, 1867<\/em><\/a>\u00a0(BNA Act<\/em>). This law was later renamed the Constitution Act, 1867,<\/em> and incorporated into our current Constitution.<\/p>\n By contrast, other current national celebrations are very prominent. This year, Canada Day even has its own hashtag on social media, #Canada150, to mark our sesquicentennial on July 1. In 2017 we also mark\u00a035 years since the patriation of Canada\u2019s primary constitutional document and the entrenchment of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms in 1982. Watch for the public acknowledgement of these historic events, which will likely be widespread, on April 17.<\/p>\n How does the passing of the BNA Act<\/em> 150 years ago compare with these two other substantial milestones in our constitutional history?<\/p>\n Well, it established the legal framework for an entirely new country. True, it was far from perfect. But changes to include a Charter and to patriate the Constitution were only amendments to improve this original document.\u00a0\u00a0 Without the BNA Act<\/em> as a starting point the constitutional changes in 1982\u00a0 would likely not have happened. Ultimately, this 150-year-old British statute laid the foundation of one of the oldest and most successful democracies in the world. That sounds like something that ought to be noted, doesn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n The fact is, Canadians often don\u2019t recall\u00a0their own history very well. This seems to be especially true of legal constitutional history. I\u2019ve been told by lawyers, for example, that much of Canada\u2019s pre-Charter legal history, before 1982, is unknown to their colleagues, who see it as uninteresting and essentially irrelevant.<\/p>\n The perception that markers in Canada\u2019s constitutional development do not matter not only is misguided but may lead us to misunderstand our own history. A case in point was\u00a0last\u00a0year\u2019s celebration of\u00a0the famous Judicial Committee of the Privy Council judgment in Edwards<\/a>, better known as the Persons Case. The anniversary of the 1929 ruling in this important matter is observed in Canada as Persons Day on October 18.<\/p>\n However, many Canadians seem unaware of what the judgment actually meant. The most serious misperception I saw last fall on social media was that the decision gave women the right to vote, which is wrong. It actually recognized that women fit within the legal requirement that only \u201cqualified persons\u201d could be appointed to sit as senators in Canada\u2019s upper chamber.<\/p>\n Yet, as I\u2019ve argued<\/a> before, what happened in history and how we (mis) remember it are often fundamental parts of both our history and our\u00a0law.<\/p>\n If we don\u2019t always get the precise meaning of things right in remembrance,\u00a0we usually at least try. There\u2019s even an official holiday\u00a0called Statute of Westminster Day,\u00a0on December 11. Consistent with the lack of attention paid to Canadian legal history, few today appreciate the fundamental impact of this 1931 British statute<\/a>. At the time Prime Minister R.B. Bennett described its importance in the long evolution of Canada\u2019s constitutional regime, saying<\/a>, \u201cThe Statute of Westminster is the culmination of the long, long effort that has been made since we were a colony, to become the self-governing dominion that we now are.\u201d<\/p>\n Among other things, this legislation effectively gave Canada its full autonomy to pass laws without review by British courts. It also provided for the elimination of legal appeals beyond Canada\u2019s own Supreme Court. Most important, the independence conferred by this legislation put Canada on a path of constitutional dialogue and development that resulted in substantial reforms 50 years later and continues to this day.<\/p>\n As a holiday, Statute of Westminster Day has been noted in the past, as in a Globe and Mail<\/em> commentary in 2006, \u201cA Statute Worth 75 Cheers<\/a>.\u201d But like the passage of the BNA Act<\/em>, the approval of the Statute of Westminster has been largely forgotten. The 85th anniversary of this significant\u00a0constitutional event\u00a0passed last December with little apparent enthusiasm or fanfare.<\/p>\n The failure to appreciate Canadian history and law might result from something more complicated than Canadians simply being \u201cbad at history.\u201d A recent\u00a0blog post<\/a> by the constitutional scholar L\u00e9onid Sirota\u00a0suggests a different\u00a0explanation for\u00a0our habit of selective remembrance.\u00a0In his view, the preferential celebration of only\u00a0certain parts of our constitutional\u00a0tradition\u00a0has partisan overtones and a current political objective. Given the lack of attention to recent important dates in our constitutional history \u2014 some unheeded by today\u2019s leaders, but others ignored<\/a> by past governments of other political stripes \u2014Sirota may have a point.<\/p>\n But I hope he is wrong. Ignoring uncomfortable or inconvenient parts of our past for present political purposes seems both petty and unbefitting a great country. All of us should take care not to let our history and law become so politicized that we forget to recognize important people, historical events and constitutional developments.<\/p>\n Even if sometimes we forget, or mis-recollect\u00a0our history, we should keep trying to get it right.<\/p>\n In the end, like many others, I\u2019m looking forward to the upcoming 35th and 150th\u00a0celebrations of Canada\u2019s legal history, throughout the rest of 2017. But I also hope everyone had a happy 150th British North America Act Day on March 29!<\/p>\n Photo: Sharon Johnston (left) and Governor General David Johnston, Minister of Canadian Heritage Melanie Joly, and Elder Albert Dumont re-light the Centennial Flame on Parliament Hill on New Year\u2019s Eve, 2016, Ottawa. THE CANADIAN PRESS\/Justin Tang<\/span><\/p>\n Do you have something to say about the article you just read? Be part of the\u00a0<\/em>Policy Options\u00a0discussion, and send in your own submission.\u00a0Here is a\u00a0<\/em>link<\/em><\/a>\u00a0on how to do it. <\/em>|\u00a0Souhaitez-vous r\u00e9agir \u00e0 cet article ? <\/em>Joignez-vous aux d\u00e9bats d\u2019<\/em>Options politiques\u00a0et soumettez-nous votre texte en suivant ces\u00a0<\/em>directives<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" March 29 was the anniversary of one of the most significant events in Canadian legal history. Few would even be aware of this, though, since it\u2019s not an official holiday, no greeting cards are available and\u00a0there was little public acknowledgement of the 150th anniversary of the passage by the British Parliament of what was then […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":253055,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","ep_exclude_from_search":false,"apple_news_api_created_at":"2025-08-30T06:03:38Z","apple_news_api_id":"c51e62b6-83a7-4c58-a6dc-d75a9f57bb0d","apple_news_api_modified_at":"2025-08-30T06:03:38Z","apple_news_api_revision":"AAAAAAAAAAD\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/w==","apple_news_api_share_url":"https:\/\/apple.news\/AxR5itoOnTFim3Ndan1e7DQ","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false},"categories":[9359,9358,9372],"tags":[9132],"article-status":[],"irpp-category":[4339,4295],"section":[],"irpp-tag":[],"class_list":["post-265021","issues","type-issues","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-loi-droits","category-politique","category-recent-stories-fr","tag-politique-canadienne","irpp-category-loi-et-justice","irpp-category-politique"],"acf":[],"apple_news_notices":[],"yoast_head":"\n
\n