Disallowance and the Charter

Disallowance and the Charter

The 1992 Charlottetown Accord famously proposed to recognize Quebec as a distinct society, reform the Senate, and constitutionally entrench the Supreme Court of Canada. Among its other, less prominent, provisions was curtailing the federal power of disallowance…The ascendancy of the federal principle has historically restrained the exercise of disallowance (Vipond 127), but in light of an earlier, successful, amendment of the Constitution in 1984, and particularly, of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and its ramifications for federalism, disallowance can now be repurposed as an instrument for the defense of minority rights.