(Montreal) Groups and individuals have just filed a request for leave to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada, in connection with the challenge to the unilateral patriation of the Constitution in 1982.
Collective rights Quebec, Justice for Quebec and the Institute for Research on the Self-Determination of Peoples and National Independence (IRAI), as well as individuals, ask the Supreme Court to overturn the decisions of the Court of Appeal in last March and from the Superior Court in August 2023.
They are not asking the Supreme Court to hear the merits of the case, but rather to send the case back to the Superior Court so that it can be heard on the merits and judged on its merits, and not rejected at the preliminary stage.
In August 2023, the Superior Court granted the request of the Attorney General of Canada and ruled inadmissible the request of these groups, which contested the legality of the process of patriation of the Constitution.
On the merits, these groups argue in particular that the unanimous agreement of the provinces was legally required, that there was a failure in the separation of powers, during the 1981 referral, and that there was a “constitutional custom”, requiring the consent of any affected province, to make a change to the federative pact that would undermine its powers and jurisdiction.