I feel a little ashamed

It's a little embarrassing that until reading this Ottawa Citizen article I wasn't thinking about the impending 30th anniversary of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the patriation of the Canadian constitution.  And without the Charter we wouldn't have the Oakes test, and where would be we be then?

Maybe on the night of the 17th I'll have to have a celebratory beer or something.

Anyway, I guess I have to agree with Jean Chretien that this is an anniversary worth noting, though I am not sure if such an event lends itself to easy celebration?

I can't wonder if the anniversary lacks a little of the oomph one might expect because some of the changes didn't take effect for a few years, somewhat diminishing the claim that this is really the 30th anniversary of the Charter.  This fragmented start date really throws a spanner in the works, so to speak, of anniversary celebrations.

He just won't stop

Another Durham gem that is sure to engender controversy/hatred of the author:

There can hardly be conceived a nationality more destitute of all that can invigorate and elevate a people, than that which is exhibited by the descendants of the French in Lower Canada, owing to their retaining their peculiar language and manners. They are a people with no history, and no literature.

How to make people hate you

There are many lessons that can be learned from Lord Durham and his report. Sometimes he explains how proper administrative structures matter, sometimes he demonstrates that colonists will be the main victims of their own mistakes in a democratic context, and, most importantly, he demonstrates how to get the better part of a country's linguistic group to hate him for the rest of time.

I think the following quote does a good job of demonstrating this last point:

A plan by which it is proposed to ensure the tranquil government of Lower Canada, must include in itself the means of putting an end to the agitation of national disputes in the legislature, by settling, at once and for ever the national character of the Province. I entertain no doubts as to the national character which must be given to Lower Canada; it must be that of the British Empire; that of the majority of the population of British North America; that of the great race which must, in the lapse of no long period of time, be predominant over the whole North American continent.

Of course, he doesn't stop there. He goes on and on impending dominance of the English and their way of life, really cementing his place in history.

We're not so innocent

Many observers of the Canadian political system, myself included, take pride in (or at least appreciate) the fact that Canadian legislation is not burdened with unrelated amendments and riders (the range of goals associated with this practice potentially being quite varied). This, of course, is in contrast to the (perceived) frequent occurrence of this practice in the US.

Not surprisingly, it turns out that Canada hasn't always been free of this practice. It seems that in the pre-Durham/United Province of Canada days the existence of this practice was something that Durham highlighted and repudiated in his report

As Durham was kind enough to note,

“A singular instance of this occurred in 1836 with respect to the renewal of the Jury Law, to which the Assembly attached great importance, and to which the Legislative Council felt a strong repugnance, on account of its having in effect placed the juries entirely in the hands of the French portion of the population. In order to secure the renewal of this law, the Assembly coupled it in the same Bill, by which it renewed the tolls of the Lachine Canal, calculating on the Council not venturing to defeat a measure of so much importance to the revenue of the latter, by resisting the former. The Council, however, rejected the Bill; and thus the Canal remained toll-free for a whole season, because the two Houses differed about a jury law.”

Times change

Is it just me, or would this passage from Donald Creighton's The Commercial Empire of the St. Lawrence likely not be written in the same way today: "Immediate these migrants had to come to terms with the new continent. From it they had to wrest a living; and since they were Europeans and not Indians, a living meant not merely the food to sustain life but the amenities of West-European civilization which alone could make it tolerable."