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Where can I find the Constitution of Canada?
Like many questions about Canada, there is no simple answer to this. To find all the parts of the Constitution of Canada you have to look in a number of statutes.
The original founding document was the British North America Act, proclaimed in 1867, which created the new country of Canada out of what are now the provinces of Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Quebec, and Ontario. Then, each new province was added by its own act such as the Alberta Act (1905); the British Columbia Terms of Union (1871) and the Newfoundland Act (1949).
In 1982, the Constitution Act was passed to re-invent the Canadian federal system. This Act renamed the British North America Act the Constitution Act, 1867. All subsequent amendments to the British North America Act were also renamed, e.g., the Constitution Act, 1871. At the same time the Canada Act of 1982 was passed in the United Kingdom thus ending the legislative authority of the UK parliament over Canada. A very important part of the Canadian Constitution is the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which is contained in Part 1 of the Constitution Act, 1982.
December 1996
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