Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
The Constitution Act, 1867 is the constitutional statute which established Canada. Originally named the British North America Act, 1867, the Act continues to be the foundational statute for the Constitution of Canada, although it has been amended many times since 1867. It is now recognised as part of the supreme law of Canada.
The Constitution Act, 1867 (French: Loi constitutionnelle de 1867), [1] originally enacted as the British North America Act, 1867 (BNA Act), is a major part of the Constitution of Canada. The act created a federal dominion and defines much of the operation of the Government of Canada , including its federal structure , the House of Commons ...
First examined in Citizen's Insurance Co. v. Parsons (1881), Sir Montague Smith of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council determined its scope thus: . The words "regulation of trade and commerce," in their unlimited sense are sufficiently wide, if uncontrolled by the context and other parts of the Act, to include every regulation of trade ranging from political arrangements in regard to ...
He concluded that the only purpose of the Act was to raise a revenue. The province therefore could not rely on s. 92(9) of the Constitution Act, 1867 in support of the Act. [16] The sole question was whether the fee under the Act was direct or indirect taxation, as s. 92(2) provides that the provinces can only impose direct taxes.
It found that the overarching purposes of the Constitution Act, 1867 were settlement, expansion and development of the Dominion; that building a transcontinental railroad was integral to those purposes, that section 91(24) of the Constitution Act, 1867, the power over "Indians," was related to these purposes, that by section 91(24) the Framers ...
However, the Constitution Act, 1867 also assigns the provinces exclusive jurisdiction over municipalities (s. 92(8)), property and civil rights in the province , and local matters (s. 92(16)). The issue was whether the railway, as a federally regulated "work or undertaking" was required to comply with the municipal order to clean its ditch, an ...
The court held that the province does not have the power to extinguish Aboriginal rights, neither directly (because of Section 91(24) of the Constitution Act, 1867) nor indirectly through laws of general applicability (because they could not indicate clear and plain intent).
Section 91(27) is by and large the broadest of the enumerated powers allocated to the federal government. As noted by Estey J. in Scowby v. Glendinning: 11. ...The terms of s. 91(27) of the Constitution must be read as assigning to Parliament exclusive jurisdiction over criminal law in the widest sense of the term.