Meech Lake Accord

The Meech Lake Accord (French: Accord du lac Meech) is the term for a series of proposed amendments to the Constitution of Canada negotiated in 1987 by Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and the 10 provincial premiers. It was intended to persuade the government of Quebec to symbolically endorse the 1982 constitutional amendments by providing for some decentralization of the Canadian federation.

The proposed amendments were initially popular and backed by nearly all political leaders. Concerns about the lack of citizen involvement in the Accord's drafting and its future effects on Canadian federalism were raised by former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, feminist activists, and Aboriginal groups. Support for the Accord began to decline. Changes in government in New Brunswick, Manitoba, and Newfoundland brought to power governments that declined to accept the Accord. Further negotiations were conducted but tension increased between Quebec and the predominantly English-speaking provinces.

A dramatic final meeting among first ministers a month before the Accord's constitutionally mandated deadline seemed to show renewed agreement on a second series of amendments that would address the concerns raised in the intervening debates. Despite this, the original accord would not gain acceptance in the Manitoba or Newfoundland legislatures in time for ratification.

Failure to pass the Accord greatly increased tensions between Quebec and the remainder of the country. The Quebec sovereignty movement gained renewed support for a time. The general aims of the Accord would be addressed in the Charlottetown Accord, which failed to gain passage in a referendum.

In 1981, negotiations led by Prime Minister of Canada Pierre Trudeau to patriate the constitution reached an agreement that formed the basis of the Constitution Act, 1982. Quebec Premier René Lévesque and the Quebec National Assembly refused to approve the amendments and announced it would use a constitutional veto. The Supreme Court of Canada ruled in the Quebec Veto Reference that Quebec did not have a veto, and the Constitution Act, 1982, was operative in Quebec.

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