AMENDMENT WANTED

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 174, 20 April 1937, Page 9

AMENDMENT WANTED

British North America Act Dominion Special Service. Ottawa. April 3. The Constitution of the Dominion of Canada is the British North America Act, passed by the British Parliament to confederate the Canadian provinces some 70 years ago. It specified the respective spheres of government of the Dominion and the provinces, and can be amended only by the enacting body —the British Parliament. Obviously, that body, perfectly willing to make any changes Canada desires, cannot be placed in the embarrassing position of having to choose between the two Canadian opinions, and so for practical purposes it is essential that requests for amendments should c.arry the support of the Dominion and the nine provinces. The touchy question of provincial rights enters the picture and makes it extremely difficult to secure unanimity. Thus the recent ruling of the Privy Council that measures passed by the Canadian Parliament in the regime of Mr. R. B. Bennett —dealing with unemployment insurance, hours of labour, minimum wages, and marketing—were unconstitutional because they invaded the provincial field of authority was hailed even by some provincial Ministers? who approved of the legislation, as victories for the provinces, and they proposed to secure by co-operation the social legislation denied them under this interpretation of the British North America Act. Mr. Bennett urges that a conference be held with the provinces in an endeavour to agree on amendments to the Constitution that will make plain beyond possibility of error the scope of the various governments, but the Government has not stated its policy in the matter. Newspaper opinion is divided. One newspaper calls the British North America Act “an archaic, obsolete instrument of government, wholely useless and unsuitable for these times,” but others defend it as vigorously, and in the division of opinion thus indicated the future course is not plain.