- Joined
- Mar 9, 2017
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- Ontario, Canada
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OlNate:
I understand and share your frustation with separatist movements but history and law give provinces certain rights including a type of sovereignty which predates the creation of the confederation of Canada.
Who petitioned the British Parliament to create Canada? It was provincial leaders of provincial governments who cooperated to create Canada. Canada is a confederation of provinces with some territories to boot and has been since 1867. The Provinces created Canada in cooperation with the British Parliament between 1862 and 1867. Canada is the child and the provinces are the parents. Not the other way around.
Since some of the provinces pre-existed Canada they have a better legal and constitutional claim to sovereignty than the whole confederation. I didn't make this history and constitutional law up. It's just the way it is. We have not had a civil war like the Americans to settle the issue of a right to secession, so that right still remains an open question and a strong case can be made for a right to secession by at least a majority of the provinces. I don't like it any more than you do, but that is the legal reality we face. About the only legal precedent in Canadian history supporting the primacy of the Federal Government is Sir John A MacDonald's use of the Canadian militia to crush the Assiniboine Territory Rebellion of 1870 and the forced creation of the Province of Manitoba that year by the Manitoba Act of 1870. Since the Provinces of Saskatchewan and Alberta were created by acts of the Canadian Parliament in 1905, I suppose that the Federal Government could legally revoke those two province's existence too, but that would be politically impossible today in my opinion.
So we are stuck with political and legal/constitutional realities which make provinces far more sovereign and far more powerful than for example US states and therefore we have to live with that.
I like the idea of a legal settlement for secession act but such an act would effectively change the BNA Act of 1867 and the Canadian Constitutional Act of 1982, thus requiring the ratification of all provinces in Canada. So I think your very good idea would be viewed by legal scholars and jurists as dead on arrival.
Money and Islands would be a good title for a Canadian History book!
Cheers.
Evilroddy.
Roddy, I hope I don't lose your respect here, because on most subject I highly respect you. And I appreciate your reasoned post, I do.
But, to give you some insight into where I land on this one, I would not be opposed to military intervention, should any province hold the rest of the country hostage in any separation coup. We will agree on many things, including that we need to look into ensuring that Alberta and Saskatchewan needs to be looked after, and treated fairly, and I would hear any evidence to support that notion, should it be presented in an effort to improve the situation, and bring unity to our country. But the second it comes around to separation, well...I can't see that as anything short of treason, not to mention theft. Things that happened hundreds of years ago do not reflect the reality that every province is beholden to the country overall, if for no other reason than for the investments all Canadians have made in every province.
I look forward to agreeing on many things in the future, and apologize for my unwillingness to budge on this issue...but only because it seems I'm being harsh in your direction, not because I think for a second that I'm wrong.