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. s tutional ‘ the British North America Act oil 7

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The Guardinn - The Evening Patriot

By Hon. Thane A. Campbell, Chief Iustice

In his Centennial year he lueation naturally arises; What significant changes have taken place in the laws of Prince Ed- war ,Island since the meeting fathers of Confederation

The", answer to this question necessitates re- rlew_ of the constitutional his- tory of The Island prior to 1864. Formeer inhabited by the Mic- MicvMac Indians, and known

is new name of Saint Jean. it re- mained a French colony (with tilerexception of a short period

HON. THANE 'A. CMAPBELL

(rein 1745 to 1748) until 1758. In 1768 by the Peace of Paris wasftormally ceded to England. From that date until 1769 The tl’sland was a part of the colony of Nova Scotia. In 1769 it was granted a separate legislature, but the finst statutes were pas- Ied in 1773 colony was vanged from Saint John to Prince Edward Island 1798

a... re

It is therefore accepted gen- erally that the laws of Prince Edward Island up to 1 were compounded of the following e1- errients- - (1) The unwritten laws of England as they stood atl1763, subject to modification by subsequent valid legislation oflthe colony. These unwritten Iaivs comprised in turn (al the criminal law; rbl the common law in civil matters: to) equity, or‘ a benefice nt gloss on the stfictness of the common law, administered by the Courts of

cery.

(21 English statutes passed up to; 1763 w‘iich had a general or specific bearing on life and con- ditions prevailing here. ‘3) (In theory) laws relating to The Is- lahd passed by the Legislature of? Nova Scotia between 1763 and 1769. (No such statutes have been brought to my atten- tionl (4) Statutes, on civil cﬂiminal law, passed by the Legislature of Prince Edward Island since 1769 (or. in prac- tice. s i n c e the meeting of the Le‘zislature in 17731.

“ﬁnch statutes could revense or modifv the existing state of the law. but until the granting of responsible government in 1851 they were liable to be disallow- ed by the Governor or by the

ome Government.

B,N.A. ACT :. uch was the content of our laws in 1864, The most important change in the laws of Prin ward Island in the past hundred years occurred on lst July 1873, when The Island became a pro- ce of Canada under tf 1e con- terms settled by

86 .

The resulting changes in our laws In a y be outlined as 'fol- laws: - ill The basic features oil our constitution passed i ritten law. as enacted by the .- N. A. Act. Th at Act, com- h ‘ned with Her Majesty's Order 0 ' mitih June 1873 admitting this I land as a province of Canada, It

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.ovided that the constitution r each of the Maritime Provin- the

Is should remain as at

'3 services.

the under its authority to regu

or procedure

time of Union. but conferred on each province of Canada the power to amend its constitution: except as to the office of Lie u- tenant - Governor.

964

Dominion and Provincial po- wers conﬂict. the Dominion le-

been passed by the Pro-

have vincial Legisla t u r e and

tions have been in large mea-

By-the provisions of the B.N.A.

“sore PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND 1884-]

Bythootatutuottfse Provinc- ialLe '

1 u ans our surefreduced to written statut- Ag, which this}! converted our stun in matters re- ﬂu

. . gis a on prev . aws on such subjects as real ory arm. a pie coo a constitution into served it! rovincial urisdi .

of topics such as agriculture. (4) The Island retained. sub- and personal property, sale of SUMMARY a complex provincial and fed- ion. p r 1 ct. 3:1”?! Wei“, :3: ﬁrm- education nnd wells-re. Ou 1' to the last mentioned prin- goods, education, highway traf— To summarize. - our laws of eral system. Yet, in spite of the voluminous: are still largely founded mmal) laws on one h subjects are ciple. the right to legislate on tic. liquor control, solemnlzation 1864, as I have outlined h (2), By the Criminal Code of statutes passed by both Domin-I common or unwritten la the therefore a combination of Do- matters of a local or private na- of marriage, care of children, a~ above, have been substantially Ca and other valid legisla- ion and Provincial legislation-England. as ' w 0! minion and Provincial statutes. ture in the province. On such ministration of justice, and pro- modified in the past hundred. tion of the Parliament ofCanada as, we remain a “com .many centuries of judicial cl”, In any field of legislation where topics very numerous acts vincial and municipal constitu. years in the following ways: (I) in its appropriate fields; (3) law" provin . ilons. e.

ONE ASSEMBLY

The most noticeable individ- ual changes in our provincial constitution occurred (a) in 1898. when the Ledalative Cou- ncil and Legislative Assembly were abolished by provincial statute and replaced by a single Legislat i v e Assembly 30 members, half of whom were to be elected by prope wners and half on a general franchise basis; and (b) in 1922, when women were admitted to vote on the same basis as men.

(2) The Island lost its powers to pass statutes on no Law, as well as on a number of other topim Which were as g- ned exclusively to the legislat- ive jurisdiction of the Parlia- ment of Canada by section 91 of the B.N.A. Act. (a) The Do- minion Parliament has since passed a large number of stat- tutes on such topics as pos t al defence. ﬁsheries. currency, banking, bills of ex- change and promissory notes, bankruptcy, etc.. under the po- rred by section 91.

come law on this Iland in com- mon 'th the other provinces. (bl One topic under the exclu- sive jurisdiction of the Parlia- ment of Canada is marriage and divorce. The Dominion has passed very little legislation on the subject of divorce, an our law therefore continues substan- tially the same as that enacted by a colonial statute of 1835 passed in the reign of William IV. U n d e r that statute the Court of Divorce for Title Island was His Majesty's Council. and up to 1949 the Executive Coun- cil sat as a court to hear divor- ce actions.

In that year, however, the Provincial Le slature, '

the administration of justice and to organize provincial courts, conferred a concurrent jurisdiction on e me Court of the Province. Since then all divorce proceedings been in the Supreme Court, and the Executive Council has pro- perly been relieved of an oner- ous judicial function. '

(cl After Confederation the English criminal law continu- ed to be applicable to this and all the other provinces of Can- ada except insofar as it modified by Dominion Statute. Our criminal law was largely unwritten until 1st July 1893, when there came into force a Canadian statute passed in thel preceding year and known as the Criminal Code, whereb a great deal of the criminal law of Canada was reduced to writ- ten and statutory form, parti- cularly with reference to defini- tion of offences, provisions for punishment and regulation of

‘2 to

CRIMINAL CODE

The Criminal Code of 1892 was subjected to very numerous amendments, and to three gen- eral revisions or consolidations (1906, 1927, 1952). On 1st April, 1955 it was replaced by the present Criminal Code, which made various changes, conden- sations and re - arrangements in the previous Code, and which (with subsequent annual amen- dments) is now applicable in this province, as well as in rest of Canada.

Unlike its predecessor. the new Code is an exhaustive cata- logue of Canadian criminal of- fences; we therefore no longer have any criminal offences at common law, 'or by pre - Con- federation statute either Eng- lish or colonial. In spite. how- ever, of the intensive codifica- tion of our criminal law. much of its basic jurisprudence. such as the principles of liability and defence, remains unwritten and is still governed by the common law of England.

(31 By the B.N.A. Act, and subsequent amendments, the Province and he Dominion have acquired concurrent pow- ers of legislation on a number

., as to cos

.: building is to be placed centre of Queen Square, v - handsome design which . drafted by Mr. Isaac Smith, ' n of the Mechanics In-

I'N CHARLO'I'I'ETOWN. wﬂlalaobeacredit to this . .1 and rising Colony". above is taken from The

‘lCo'lonial building

which also noted that in

hen nor placed in a niche in it a vase containing various coins of the realm and a scroll Which read as follows:

rat stone of if: Iwas laid by His Excellency.

a 0 day of May, in the year of Our: Lord. Hundred and in

t $35,000

laying the cornerstone the t Gover-

‘"ll'ie fi this Build-

Vere Huntley Knight,

enry

One Thousand Eight and Forty-three (1543) the st year of the

WIT

Serving P. E. Island Since I886 '

First power plant pictured at right was a steam driven turbine plant with a 500 Kllowott capacity, 175 lbs. steam

pressure. Pictured is plant of 1926.

ELEGTHIGITY

With A Modern Efficient Plant '

Shown at left is presentploni generat- lng total capacity of 55,000 kilowatts. New centralized control system recent- ly Installed enables one operator to

control and odiust normal output of

plant.

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