England, Canada and the Great WarDesjardins, L. G. (Louis Georges)
History
England, Canada and the Great War
Desjardins, L. G. (Louis Georges)
Great Britain -- Colonies -- Canada; Imperialism; World War, 1914-1918; World War, 1914-1918 -- Canada
That Canada is not a Sovereign State is proved beyond doubt by the very
fact that she could not amend or change her constitutional charter by
her own power and without a new Imperial law. If the Nationalist
leader's pretention was sound, any member of the House of Commons, or of
the Senate, in Ottawa, could propose a bill to repeal the British North
America Act, 1867, and to replace it by another constitutional charter.
The very supposition is absurd. Can it be imagined that His Excellency
the Governor-General could be advised by his responsible Ministers to
sanction, in the name of His Majesty the Sovereign of Great Britain, a
bill repealing an Act of the Imperial Parliament? Still it is exactly
what Mr. Bourassa's theory amounts to.
Our constitutional charter does not only provide what is called our
Federal,--or National--autonomy, but also the Provincial autonomy. The
powers of both are well defined in the Imperial Act. The Provinces of
the Dominion also exercise that share of the Sovereign rights delegated
to them by the Imperial Parliament. Would the Nationalist leader draw
the extravagant conclusion that the territory of any one of the
Provinces cannot be declared in the "State of War" with a Foreign Power,
by His Majesty the King, without the assent of the Ministers of that
Province? Still that absurd proposition would not be more so than that
affirming the necessity of the assent of the Canadian Cabinet, to a
declaration of War involving Canada in an Imperial struggle.
The Sovereign right of declaring war to, and of making peace with,
another independent State, is vested in the King of Great Britain,
acting upon the advice of his responsible Ministers in the United
Kingdom. To the Imperial Parliament belongs the constitutional authority
to deal with the Imperial Foreign Affairs.
It is plain that when Great Britain is at War with another Sovereign
State the whole territory of the British Empire is in the "State of War"
with that Nation.
It is inconceivable that Mr. Bourassa has seriously pretended that
Canada was not at war with the German Empire the very moment the British
Empire was so in consequence of the violation by Germany of Belgian
neutrality. One can hardly believe that he has propounded the fallacious
constitutional doctrine that His Majesty "_the King of England hath not
the right to declare Canada in the State of War without the assent of
the Canadian Cabinet_."
Where and when has the Nationalist leader discovered that the Canadian
Ministers have the right to advise His Majesty upon all the questions
pertaining to the Imperial Foreign Affairs? Any one conversant with the
constitutional status of Canada knows that the Canadian Ministers have
the right to advise the representative of the Sovereign only upon
matters as defined by the British North America Act, 1867, and its
amendments.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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