[DOWNLOAD] "Rebuttal to Edmund A. Aunger, "the Constitution of Canada and the Official Status of French in Alberta" (Canadian Parliamentary Review, Vol. 32, P. 22, 2009)" by Constitutional Forum # Book PDF Kindle ePub Free

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Title: Rebuttal to Edmund A. Aunger, "the Constitution of Canada and the Official Status of French in Alberta" (Canadian Parliamentary Review, Vol. 32, P. 22, 2009)
Author : Constitutional Forum
Release Date : January 22, 2009
Genre: Law,Books,Professional & Technical,
Pages : * pages
Size : 95 KB

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In a Canadian Parliamentary Review article "The Constitution of Canada and the Official Status of French in Alberta," (1) Professor Edmund Aunger contends that French is an official language of Alberta and that this status is entrenched in the Canadian Constitution. Since the Supreme Court of Canada ruling in R. v. Mercure, (2) which held that Saskatchewan (and by implication Alberta) was officially bilingual but could amend its constitution unilaterally with respect to language, new evidence has come to light which calls into question the right of Alberta and Saskatchewan unilaterally to remove French as an official language of the province. Aunger claims that he has discovered that the official status of French dates from 1835 in Rupert's Land and the North-Western Territory, and that that status was carried over into Confederation in 1870 through section 23 of The Manitoba Act, 1870 (3) when these lands were acquired by Canada. This federal legislation, Aunger argues, entrenched bilingualism in the province of Manitoba and all of the remainder of Rupert's Land and the North-Western Territory. For Alberta, this status was confirmed through amendment to the North-West Territories Act, 1877 (4) and the Alberta Act (5) of 1905. Based on a careful study of the history of this period, it is evident that Aunger has misunderstood "the historical origins and constitutional foundations of linguistic duality in Canada." (6) Aunger insists that French had "a status recognized in law and in fact" (7) in the District of Assiniboia from its creation in 1835, because the use of French was permitted at meetings of the Council of Assiniboia, before the courts in the District of Assiniboia, and because petitions were accepted and laws were often printed in French and English. Based on a statement by George Cartier that French was an "official language" of Rupert's Land and the North-Western Territory, (8) Aunger assumes that French was a constitutionally guaranteed linguistic right, which could only be removed through a proper process of constitutional amendment. He insists that the Parliament of Canada guaranteed the people of Rupert's Land and the North-Western Territory that this linguistic right would be carried over into the Canadian Constitution once Canada had acquired these territories. (9) The process for this transfer would occur under section 146 of the Constitution Act, 1867, (10) formerly called the British North America Act, 1867. Under section 146 of the Constitution Act, 1867, the Canadian Parliament--through a formal Address to the Queen--was required to indicate to the people of Rupert's Land and the North-Western Territory the terms and conditions of their entry into Confederation and, if the Queen (effectively the United Kingdom government) approved these measures by order-in-council, the Dominion of Canada would be permitted to acquire this vast expanse of land. According to Aunger, French linguistic rights formed part of the 1867 Address to the Queen requesting the admission of Rupert's Land and the North Western Territory to the Dominion of Canada, (11) otherwise she would not have permitted Canada to acquire those lands. In using the process laid out in section 146, Aunger goes on to argue, Canada committed itself to bilingualism in this vast region, and French language rights were "recognized and entrenched" in the Constitution of Canada for the benefit of the whole area from what would become Labrador through the Yukon and to all of the provinces and territories in between. (12)