Constitution of Canada

The Constitution of Canada is the supreme law in Canada; the country's constitution is an amalgamation of codified acts and uncodified traditions and conventions. It is one of the oldest working constitutions in the world. The constitution outlines Canada's system of government, as well as the civil rights of all Canadian citizens and those in Canada. Canadian constitutional law relates to the interpretation and application of the constitution.

The composition of the Constitution of Canada is defined in subsection 52(2) of the Constitution Act, 1982 as consisting of the Canada Act 1982 (including the Constitution Act, 1982), all acts and orders referred to in the schedule (including the Constitution Act, 1867, formerly The British North America Act, 1867), and any amendments to these documents. The Supreme Court of Canada held that the list is not exhaustive and includes a number of pre-confederation acts and unwritten components as well. See list of Canadian constitutional documents for details.

The first semblance of a constitution for Canada was the Royal Proclamation of 1763. The act renamed the northeasterly portion of the former French province of New France as Province of Quebec, roughly coextensive with the southern third of contemporary Quebec. The proclamation, which established an appointed colonial government, was the de facto constitution of Quebec until 1774, when the British parliament passed the Quebec Act, which expanded the province's boundaries to the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, which was one of the grievances listed in the United States Declaration of Independence. Significantly, the Quebec Act also replaced the French criminal law presumption of guilty until proven innocent with the English criminal law presumption of innocent until proven guilty; but the French code or civil law system was retained for non-criminal matters.

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