In this section, we look at the strong centralized federalism which the
Canadian Framers thought they had created in the Constitution of Canada,
itself an important image. But what the Framers thought they had created was
not what the judges initially charged with its interpretation—the Judicial
Committee of the Privy Council (“J.C.P.C.”), a constituent body of the United
Kingdom Imperial Parliament—thought they found when choosing the
meaning of the text. Instead, using what has come to be known as a vision of
coordinate or co-equal federalism—or what we call the image of coordinate
federalism—the members of the J.C.P.C. changed the meaning of the
Framers’ handiwork, making it something quite unlike the controlling image
relied upon by the Framers.
1880 (U.K.); Constitution Act 1886, 49 & 50 Vict. c 35 (U.K.); Canada (Ontario Boundary) Act 1889,
52 & 53 Vict. c 28 (U.K.); Alberta Act, S.C. 1905, c 3 (Can.); Saskatchewan Act, S.C. 1905, c 42
(Can.); Constitution Act 1907, 7 Edw. 7 c 11 (U.K.); Constitution Act 1915, 5 & 6 Geo. 5 c 45 (U.K.);
Constitution Act, 1930, 20 & 21 Geo. 5 c 26 (U.K.); Statute of Westminster 1931, 22 Geo. 5 c 4 (U.K.);
Constitution Act 1940, 3 & 4 Geo. 6 c 36 (U.K.); Newfoundland Act 1949, 12 & 13 Geo. 6 c 22 (U.K.);
Constitution Act 1960, 9 Eliz. 2 c 2 (U.K.); Constitution Act 1964, 12 & 13 Eliz. 2 c 73 (U.K.);
Constitution Act, 1965, S.C. 1965, c 4, Part I (Can.); Constitution Act, 1974, S.C. 1974–75–76, c 13,
Part I (Can.); Constitution Act (No. 2), 1975, S.C. 1974–75–76, c 53 (Can.); Constitution Amendment
Proclamation, 1983, SI/84–102, (1984) C. Gaz. II, 2984 (Can.); Constitution Amendment, 1993
(N.B.), SI/93–54, (1993) C. Gaz. II, 1588 (Can.); Constitution Amendment, 1993 (P.E.I.), SI/94–45,
(1994) C. Gaz. II, 2021 (Can.); Constitution Amendment, 1997 (Nfld. Act), SI/97–55, (1997) C. Gaz.
II, Extra No 4 (Can.); Constitution Amendment, 1997 (Que.), SI/97–141, (1998) C. Gaz. II, 308 (Can.);
Constitution Amendment, 1998 (Nfld. Act), SI/98–25, (1998) C. Gaz. II, Extra No 1 (Can.);
Constitution Act, 1999 (Nun.), S.C. 1998, c 15, Part II (Can.); Constitution Amendment, 2001 (Nfld.),
SI/2001–117, (2001) C. Gaz. II, Extra No 6 (Can.); Fair Representation Act, S.C. 2011, c 26, §§ 2, 14,
15, 17–20 (Can.); Proclamation of 1763 (U.K.); Supreme Court Act, R.S.C. 1985, c S-26 (Can.);
Letters Patent Constituting the Office of Governor General and Commander-in-Chief of Canada, 1947
(Can.); English Bill of Rights, 1689, 1 W. & M. Sess. 2 c 2 (U.K.); Act of Settlement, 1701, 12 and
13 Will. 3 c 2 (U.K.).