Library and Archives Canada preserves thousands of key documents of Canadian history, governance and political culture, most notably the Proclamation of the Constitution Act of 1982. Although Canada became a sovereign state in 1931 when Britain passed the Statute of Westminster, the power to alter Canada’s Constitution was in British hands. On a rainy April 17 1982 on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Queen Elizabeth II signed the proclamation allowing Canada to make changes to its Constitution and giving the country political independence from Britain. The Act accompanying the proclamation also established a Charter of Rights and Freedoms, guaranteeing Canadians political and civil rights. This bill of rights, the result of the movement to protect human rights and freedoms that emerged after Second World War forms the first thirty-five sections of the Act. Written in Canada’s two official languages, this was the first British Act of Parliament to be passed in French since the Middle Ages. To this day, the Government of Quebec has never formally ratified the Act. The original copy of the proclamation was slightly damaged by the rain during the ceremony. In 1983, Toronto artist Peter Greyson entered Ottawa’s National Archives and poured red paint over the second original copy of the proclamation. Greyson said he was disgruntled with the federal government’s decision to allow U.S. missile testing in Canada and wanted to “graphically illustrate to Canadians” the wrongdoing of the government. A grapefruit-sized stain still remains on the document.

Jennifer Patterson