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Constitution (Non-Charter) - Parliamentary Sovereignty. Reference re An Act respecting First Nations, Inuit and Métis children, youth and families
In Reference re An Act respecting First Nations, Inuit and Métis children, youth and families (SCC, 2023) the Supreme Court of Canada considers the nature of 'parliamentary sovereignty':[57] One fundamental postulate of our constitutional architecture is parliamentary sovereignty (see, e.g., Reference re Pan‑Canadian Securities Regulation, 2018 SCC 48, [2018] 3 S.C.R. 189, at paras. 56‑58). This general principle of parliamentary sovereignty in Canada is explained as follows by Professors Hogg and Wright: “Not only may the Parliament or a Legislature, acting within its allotted sphere of competence, make any law it chooses, it may repeal any of its earlier laws” (P. W. Hogg and W. K. Wright, Constitutional Law of Canada (5th ed. Supp.), at § 12:9 (footnote omitted)). The logical corollary of this postulate is that Parliament and the legislatures may bind the Crown through legislation (see, e.g., P. W. Hogg, P. J. Monahan and W. K. Wright, Liability of the Crown (4th ed. 2011), at pp. 396‑97). They may do so expressly or by necessary implication (IBEW v. Alberta Government Telephones, 1989 CanLII 79 (SCC), [1989] 2 S.C.R. 318, at pp. 326‑30). Through this power to bind the Crown, parliamentary sovereignty is thus exercised over government actors of all sorts. By imposing limits on these actors through legislation that is binding on the Crown, lawmakers can shape how public powers are exercised (Dunsmuir v. New Brunswick, 2008 SCC 9, [2008] 1 S.C.R. 190, at para. 28; see also H. Brun, G. Tremblay and E. Brouillet, Droit constitutionnel (6th ed. 2014), at paras. IX.39‑IX.41). Government actors are bound by legislative limits imposed on them by Parliament and the legislatures, subject to constitutional imperatives. ...
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