Respecting Democratic Constitutional Change

Abstract

The present paper comments on the author's Canadian House of Commons private member's Bill C-470, An Act Respecting Democratic Constitutional Change, introduced in February 2013 as an alternative to the federal Clarity Act by the author in his capacity as Member of Parliament for Toronto-Danforth and Official Opposition Critic for Democratic Reform. It is an edited version of a lecture delivered at the University of Toronto Faculty of Law in March 2013 and of a paper presented at a seminar at Glendon College, York University, in January 2014. The focus of the paper is the law, politics and policy around secession within Canada's constitution. The paper has a special focus on the reasoning of the Supreme Court of Canada in Reference re Secession of Quebec and on the infirmities of the Clarity Act as a response to that judgment, situating the analysis within broader aspirations for a more robust integration of Quebec into the Canadian constitutional framework.