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rfmcdonaldIn celebrating the 30th anniversary of the adoption of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, Andrew Barton noted new releases from British archives which show that, even as the Charter was being debated in Canada Margaret Thatcher and the British cabinet considered intervening to prevent Canada from becoming fully independent of the United Kingdom.
Many Conservative MPs, the article continues, were also hostile to the inclusion of a "Bill of Rights" on the American model in the constitution of what was still a Commonwealth country.
This announcement isn't surprising, since, for Margaret Thatcher, the Commonwealth mattered, as a transnational community ultimately under British leadership. Thatcher was upset with the United States' invasion of Grenada in 1983, for instance, partly because Grenada was a Commonwealth realm and the Queen the sovereign. Similarly, Thatcher tried to echo Reagan's policy of "constructive engagement" with South Africa under apartheid, shifting towards an embrace of sanctions only when Britain's partners in the Commonwealth made sanctions a condition for the Commonwealth's survival.
The British cabinet records show there was considerable constitutional angst not just in Canada, but across the pond, said Eric Adams, an assistant professor of law at the University of Alberta.
“There’s this massive tug-of-war going on in which the rules are not clear, and in which politics and law are totally interwoven, and you can see how flummoxed this makes the British Parliament. They wish this issue would go away,” said Adams.
“These memos represent the last moments when the British are wringing their hands about the difficult colonials across the ocean that are causing them headaches.”
During a British cabinet discussion on Oct. 20, 1981, then-foreign minister Peter Carington told colleagues that Trudeau was talking of “substantial compromise” between the federal government and eight provinces with objections.
Still, “the possibility of such a compromise remained uncertain,” the cabinet minutes say.
That was worrisome because the Supreme Court of Canada had just ruled that while the federal government could seek changes to the Constitution without provincial consent, doing so would violate convention.
It was noted during the cabinet session that the Supreme Court ruling “had increased the likelihood of the British Parliament rejecting the Canadian proposals.”
The reason: if Ottawa overrode one constitutional convention by pushing ahead without provincial backing, Westminster could not reasonably be bound by another — the long-held notion that Britain was no longer entitled to intervene in Canadian matters.
The Thatcher cabinet feared a parliamentary vote against the Canadian plan.
Many Conservative MPs, the article continues, were also hostile to the inclusion of a "Bill of Rights" on the American model in the constitution of what was still a Commonwealth country.
This announcement isn't surprising, since, for Margaret Thatcher, the Commonwealth mattered, as a transnational community ultimately under British leadership. Thatcher was upset with the United States' invasion of Grenada in 1983, for instance, partly because Grenada was a Commonwealth realm and the Queen the sovereign. Similarly, Thatcher tried to echo Reagan's policy of "constructive engagement" with South Africa under apartheid, shifting towards an embrace of sanctions only when Britain's partners in the Commonwealth made sanctions a condition for the Commonwealth's survival.
