Notes

• Author: Gary William O'Brien
• Pages: 109-126



Notes

  | What Is the Senate?

 Senate of Canada, “Proceedings of the Special Committee on Senate Mod-

ernization” Evidence, -, Issue No  ( March ) at :. During his

testimony, David E Smith provides this quote.

 Manitoba’s Upper Chamber was abolished in ; New Brunswick’s in

; Prince Edward Island’s in ; Nova Scotia’s in ; and Quebec’s

in . See Audrey O’Brien & Marc Bosc, eds, House of Commons Procedure

and Practice, d ed (Ottawa: House of Commons, ) at Figure .. See

also DC Harvey, “e Passing of the Second Chamber in Prince Edward

Island”() : Report of the Annual Meeting  at –; Charles Paul Ho-

man, e Abolition of the Legislative Council of Nova Scotia, – (Master of

Laws esis, McGill University Institute of Comparative Law, ) [unpub-

lished]; and Edmond Orban, “La f‌in du bicaméralism au Québec” () :

Canadian Journal of Political Science  at –.

 Constitution Act,  (UK),  &  Vict, c , s ; Constitution Act, , s ()

being Schedule B to the Canada Act  (UK), , c .

 Reference re Senate Re form,  SCC  at para  [Referenc e re Senate Reform].

 Quoted in FA Kunz, e Modern Senate of Canada,–: A Re-appraisal

(Toronto: University of Toronto Press, ) at .

 Provincial Parliament of Canada, Parliamentary Debates on the subject of the

Confederation of the British North American Provinces, - ( February ) at .

 Quoted in Senator Hugh Segal, “Senate Reform and Democratic Legitimacy:

Beyond Stasis” in Jennifer Smith, ed, e Democratic Dilemma: Reforming the

THE SENATE OF CANADA



Canadian Senate (Montreal & Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press,

Institute of Intergovernmental Relations, ) at .

 House of Commons Debates, -, vol  ( January ) at –.

 For other examples of distinguished appointments, see Kunz, above note 

at –.

 On  October , women became qualif‌ied for appointment to the Senate.

e change was brought about not through a formal constitutional amend-

ment but by a decision of the United Kingdom’s Judicial Committee of the

Privy Council. See Edwards v Attorney-General (Canada), [] UKPC  (the

Persons Case) and Serge Joyal, ed, Protecting Canadian Democracy: e Senate You

Never Knew (Montreal & Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, )

at  and .

 See CES Franks, e Parliament of Canada (Toronto: University of Toronto Press,

) at .

 Cited by Joan Powers Rikerd, “Science” in John Saywell & Donald Forster, eds,

Canadian Annual Review for  (Toronto: University of Toronto,) at .

 David C Docherty, “e Canadian Senate: Chamber of Sober Ref‌lection or

Loony Cousin Best Not Talked About” () : e Journal of Legislative

Studies  at .

 Franks, above note  at .

 Se e Robert A Mackay, e Unreformed Senate of Canada, rev ed (Toronto:

McClelland and Stewart, ) at .

 John N Turner, “e Senate of Canada-Political Conundrum” in Robert M

Clark, ed, Canadian Issues: essays in honour of Henry F Angus (Toronto: Published

for the University of British Columbia by the University of Toronto Press,

) at .

 Smith, above note .

 Mackay, above note .

 David E Smith, “e Improvement of the Senate by Non-constitutional

Means” in Joyal, above note  at .

 “Proceedings of the Special Committee on Senate Modernization,” above

note . David E Smith, in his testimony before the Special Senate Committee

on Senate Modernization, described the Senate as “a terra incognita to most

citizens.” For a list of articles, monographs, legislation, and caselaw regard-

ing the Senate, see Joyal, above note  at –.

 Re: Authority of Parliament in relation to the Upper House, []  SCR , 

DLR (d) ; Referenc e re Senat e Reform, above note  at paras , , , , ,

, and –.

 Leo Strauss & Joseph Cropsey, History of Political Philosophy, d ed (Chicago &

London: University of Chicago Press, ) at .