APPENDIX BHOW A BILL BECOMES LAW

Our system of government is set out in the Constitution (https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/const/), which has two main parts: the Constitution Act, 1867—formerly called the British North America Act, 1867—and the Constitution Act, 1982. The 1867 act founded the country now known as Canada by joining several British colonies into one federation. It describes the structure of Canada’s government, and it also specifies what powers the federal government has and what powers the provinces have. Originally, the 1867 Constitution Act could be altered only by an act of the British Parliament, which meant that Britain had the final authority over the government of Canada. This changed in 1982, when Britain relinquished this authority and Canada “patriated” its constitution—that is, made it our own—so that our Parliament in Ottawa no longer had to seek approval from Britain in order to amend our constitution.

At that time, Canada passed a second act—the Constitution Act, 1982. It opens with an important list of rights for all Canadians, called the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and it recognizes the special rights of the Indigenous peoples who live in the country that settlers named Canada.¹ The 1982 act also lays out a procedure for amending the Constitution and lists all the legal acts, orders, and amendments from 1867 to 1982 that the Constitution incorporates. All other laws made in Canada must follow the rules set out in the Constitution, or else they are unconstitutional and therefore invalid. For that reason, by including the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, our Constitution ensures that no future government of Canada can pass a law that violates our basic human and political rights.

The part of the 1982 Constitution Act that recognizes Indigenous rights is often called “section 35” (although it also includes a section 35.1). In addition, section 25 states that the Charter of Rights and Freedoms cannot be interpreted in a way that would limit Indigenous rights. Section 35 defines Indigenous peoples as First Nations, Inuit, and Métis. At the same time, the Constitution does not attempt to define what qualifies as an Indigenous right, as doing so would be too “prescriptive”—that is, it would impose a particular interpretation. Instead, the Constitution leaves it to the courts to decide, with regard to specific cases, whether something is or is not an Indigenous right.

The laws passed by Parliament or by provincial or territorial legislatures are called statutes. Any new statute starts its life as a bill—a proposal for either a new law or an amendment (change) to an existing one. At the federal level, most bills begin in the House of Commons, and most of these are government bills, introduced by government ministers, although any member of Parliament (MP) can introduce a bill, in which case it is called a private member’s bill. A bill may, however, start out in the Senate, rather than the House; this will usually be a private member’s bill, introduced by an individual senator, although sometimes it’s a government bill. A government bill typically reflects the platform on which that government was elected—the policies and the program of action that it put before voters. For the most part, private members’ bills also relate to matters of public policy, but they may also reflect the special concerns and interests of a particular group of people.

When a bill is introduced into the House, it must go through a number of steps in order to become law. First, it receives a first reading, just to introduce it. Next, it is given a second reading, during which it is discussed and debated. The House may vote to reject it at this point, although this seldom happens with government bills. After its second reading, the bill is usually referred to one of the House’s standing committees—whichever one specializes in the topic most closely related to the bill. (For example, a bill about refugee policy would probably go to the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration.)² The members of this committee study the bill and may make recommendations for amending it or even rejecting it. If the committee recommends any amendments, the entire House will consider these during the report stage, when MPs examine the report submitted by the committee. At this stage, other MPs may also suggest their own amendments. Next, the bill gets a third reading, in which the House votes to adopt the bill in its original form, to adopt it with one or more of the suggested amendments, or to completely reject it.

Once a bill is adopted by the House, it passes to the Senate, which will decide to adopt or reject it using the same steps as in the House: first reading, second reading, committee and report stages, and third reading. If the bill is passed by the Senate, it is sent to the Governor General for Royal Assent. He or she has the power either to approve the bill (“give assent”), at which point it becomes law, to withhold assent, at which point the bill fails, or to ask the King to make the final decision. But no Governor General of Canada has ever refused to assent to a bill passed by Parliament, and it is unlikely that one would do so without an extremely good reason (for example, if he or she thought a bill was unconstitutional). After Royal Assent is given, a government newspaper called the Canada Gazette (now available only in electronic form) publishes the law, making it completely official.³

Senators’ bills follow all the same steps, except that they are first debated in the Senate and are then sent to the House. In either case, both the Senate and the House must pass the bill or it will not become law. Usually, senators do not reject bills that have already been passed by the House, although occasionally they do use this power.

Provincial and territorial bills follow a similar process except that the legislature has only one house: there is no senate. A bill that passes three readings in the legislature is sent for Royal Assent to the Lieutenant Governor (or, in the territories, to the commissioner), who may give assent, refuse to give it, or (except in the case of territorial commissioners) ask the Governor General to decide on the bill. Although Canada’s history is full of occasions on which a province’s Lieutenant Governor rejected a bill or referred it to the Governor General for a decision, this has not happened since 1961.

Turning a bill into a law is a long, complicated, and sometimes frustrating process. But changing the law is a serious matter, and the right thing to do isn’t always obvious. So it’s good that a lot of thought and discussion goes into creating or amending a law.