The Patriation and Legitimacy of the Canadian Constitution
Exclusive English transcript of Barry Lee Strayer’s (1982)
Cronkite Lectures
This is a page-by-page transcript of the original, using the original pagination.
The 1982 constitution was a coup d’état, and not a constitutional amendment
as admitted by its principal architect.
The importance of these lectures lies in the fact that the author, Barry Lee Strayer, who advised Pierre Trudeau for over 20 years on the implementation of a Charter of Rights, admits that the “patriation” of 1982 lacked legality and constituted a Southern Rhodesian-style coup d’état; a constitutional and parliamentary coup on the country.
What do we mean by a “Southern Rhodesian-style coup d’état”? Simply this:
There is no legal continuity between the 1867 constitution and the constitution imposed in 1982. Like Ian Smith and his executive in 1965 in Southern Rhodesia, those who betrayed their oath by taking advantage of their office to replace Canada’s legal constitution with a new one, thus destroyed the source of their office under the 1867 constitution. They continued to govern, under their own new constitution, but without even a semblance of legal authority, because they had not been elected or appointed under that constitution. They were “de facto” not “de jure”.
The adjective “de facto ” means “in fact” in Latin. It is often used instead of “real” to indicate that the court will consider as a fact the exercise of an authority or an entity acting as if it had authority, even if the legal requirements have not been met. “De jure ” is a Latin adjective meaning ‘legal’, as opposed to de facto (not legal, but factual).
In reality, Canada’s governments, both federal and provincial, have been “de facto” rather than “de jure” since 1982. Appointment and election under the coup constitution provide only a fig leaf for Canada’s rogue regimes.
A selection of Strayer’s quotes highlighting the 1982 coup has been compiled and linked in the sidebar, and is also available here as a free PDF download. Or click here to read them now. A scan of the original lectures in English can also be downloaded free of charge.
