Dear Editor:
Just a quick history lesson about how the Constitution and Charter of Freedoms and Rights came about. I was not aware of this myself until I researched Brian Peckford, the last surviving premier directly involved with the forming and writing of these two documents.
This historical moment happened over a 17-month negotiation process in which the prime minster at the time, Pierre Trudeau, left the table half way through and initiated an act through the House of Commons to unilaterally patriate his version of the Constitution and Charter.
Three court cases arose to challenge his constitutional authority to do this, one from Newfoundland, one from Manitoba and one from Quebec. On Sept. 28, 1981, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled on all three accounts that what the prime minister was trying to do was unconstitutional and he could not continue without the support of the provinces. Trudeau was forced back to the table.
It was the proposal from the provinces over the night of Nov. 4/5, 1981 that led to what we have today, not Trudeau’s proposal that was defeated by his own court, the Supreme Court of Canada. Sterling Lyons, another premier at the time, was concerned that the government in the future would do the same thing that Pierre Trudeau tried but failed, and will find a way to “usurp” individual rights and freedoms. This sounds like very strong language, but it comes from again someone who was there at the time and found that the prime minister at the time could not be trusted to negotiate in the best interests of the people of Canada.
Does this sound like that phrase “history repeats” itself? With this tidbit of political history truth, you decide. Brian Peckford lives in British Columbia and speaks regularly about his concerns of what has happened over the last two years.
Michael Thorp,
Mount Forest