Sovereignty - the missing Link in Canada's Evolution.

I must thank the Ottawa Citizen for creating a series on Canada's future and including this piece from Robert Sibley "Why those charting Canada's future cannot forget the past".

Sibley writes "There are those naive souls who think we can solve our constitutional crises if everybody would "practise a federalism of respect and recognition," to quote a recent Globe and Mail headline. Such sentimentality ignores the reality of constitutions:

They are about power.

Formal or informal, written or unwritten, a constitution identifies the fundamental power relationships between governments, and between governments and citizens.

(ed. from Gr.10 Physics) Power cannot be created or destroyed - it can only be transferred or transformed.

Power has to go somewhere. Someone, some government, has to be responsible for the use -- and the abuse -- of power."

and later he quotes the Conference Board-sponsored views of the U of Toronto's Janice Stein "Ultimately accountability resides where legal decision-making ability resides."

and then Mr Sibley adds, "Which is to say, if jurisdiction is determined to reside with a particular level of government, then that government calls the shots."

He has analysed the opinions, biases and suggestions of the Conference Board's two other notables (Antonia Masioni and Roger Gibbons) with their ideas on centralizing vs decentralizing and then wonders, " it is possible that the will to live apart will become stronger than the will to live together -- unless, perhaps, Canadian federalism can be reworked to general satisfaction."

I am awed that Mr Sibley who (like so many "experts" and "specialist" in the Canadian Constitutional field of study) cannot see the solution which 'is as plain as the nose on your face' particularly after he writes "Only then, when first principles are clear, can the appropriate forms of political organization -- requiring alterations to parliamentary institutions, perhaps -- be determined. "

The primary of 'first principles' that is neglected by all contemporary BNA Act(s)/ Constitution Act(s) scholars is sovereignty.

Mr Sibley's (quite good) recounting of Dominion-Provincial evolution stops just short of examining the "missing link" in Canada's arrested-in-development transformation from colony to independent state.

Sovereignty, the key ingredient of any country, is missing in Canada. It was was never requested, never granted and never 'patriated'!

The source of all sovereignty, the source of all government power, the 'owner' of all real property in Canada ... in fact all and everything that IS Canada, is 'owned' by the Crown.

The upshot being that (legally and constitutionally) the government(s) in Canada are still but stewards of the Crown's Treasury & Assets. The governments are still but toadies of the Crown, they obtain their Authority by asking permission of the Queen's representative, all Acts and actions of the Courts, the police, the assemblies are done in the name of the Crown AND the governments of Canada is ACCOUNTABLE ONLY to the Crown.

Surely this has occurred to someone .... and they've just preferred not to open this can of worms in front of the ONLY people who are NOT mentioned in the BNA/Constitution Acts - Carol & Jean Canuck!!

Examine the documents 1763 thru 1982(as amended), who or what is the source of sovereignty and all governmental Authority in Canada?

-dear ol' beleaguered, HRH Elizabeth II?,
-the British Privy Council?
-the Governor General?,
-the Chief Justice?
-the Prime Minister?,
-the Clerk of the Privy Council?
-the Speaker of the House?
-your MP? all the MP's?
-you?

So my dear Watson et al;
1) IF Constitutions are about ascribing power TO a government FROM a source,
2) and IF the Canada Act UK 1982 removed the British Privy Council & Houses of Parliament from the power chain of command,
3) and IF HRH appears to not wish to intervene (as Sovereign) in Canadian affars,
4) and IF since 1926 the (appointed-by-the-PM) Governor-Generals & Lt Generals seemingly dare not exercise their BNA Act entrenched (& re-affirmed in 1947) veto powers,
5) AND IF there is no Constitutional power-role for citizen/ resident/ tax-filers,

THEN the governments of Canada are accountable ONLY to themselves.

Hence, (perhaps) unwittingly, perfect application of 'lunatics running the asylm' coupled with 'power corrupts and absolute power, corrupts absolutely' has found its home in Canada.

The solution (and epiphany that makes a return to ALL the provision of the as-written BNA/ Constitution Acts simple) is a deemed disposition of 'sovereignty' from HRH to the collective possession of All Canadian citizens.

This conceptual transfer of ownership (the CCRA does it all the time);
-empowers the citizen and elevates her/him to the top of the power totem in Canada,
-increases the Net Worth of Canada tremendously,
-transforms our ideas about Crown Land and the economic returns to be gleaned therein,
-should revitalize the role of Governor General (into custodian of Canada's wealth and holder of the supreme veto),
-over-turns the apple cart of 'absolute corrupts' created in a 50%+1 Lower House, controlled by an election machine with 38-45% of electoral support.

In short, it IS the solution to the nagging feeling that "something is not-quite-right" with the Canadian government system.