The BC government has no lawful authority to pass statutes with the force of law in BC. That is because the people of BC have never been allowed their inherent right to choose their form of government. The people have never approved a document that gives their government the right to rule them. Such a document would be called a constitution. But BC has no constitution.

4 - BC’s CONSTITUTIONAL PROBLEM affects your income
[ “constitutions control governments, and people are supposed to control constitutions” ]



BC has a serious constitutional problem

Here is a constitutional fact.

• The BC government has no lawful authority to pass statutes with the force of law in BC. That is because the people of BC have never been allowed their inherent right to choose their form of government. The people have never approved a document that gives their government the right to rule them. Such a document would be called a constitution. But BC has no constitution.

So the question arises “What authority does the BC government claim as its right to pass statutes with the force of law in BC?”
The answer is that in 1871 a BC government drafted and passed a BC statute which gave itself [the government] the right to pass statutes. That 1871 statute was named the BC Constitution Act, and with a few amendments it remains in force today [even some of the original wording is identical].
The answer is that a small group of 1871 provincial politicians passed a statute that was given Royal Assent by the Lieutenant Governor, and which still allows a small group of politicians to pass laws that every British Columbian is forced to obey - still today.
The answer is that the BC government gave itself the power to rule this province.

The answer is that the BC government usurped power in the absence of a constitution approved by the people of this province. The present BC Constitution Act excludes the people from any participation in government. The words “rights of the people” do not appear in it. The people have no more than the government’s permission to vote a different party into power in this unlawful government.
The World Bank, which deals with countries around the world, has defined a de facto [unlawful] government as follows:

• A “de facto government” comes into, or remains in, power by means not provided for in the country’s constitution, such as a coup d’etat, revolution, usurpation, abrogation or suspension of the constitution. Source - World Bank website - Dealings with De Facto Governments -
  Note: This OP 7.30 replaces OP 7.30, dated November 1994. Questions may be addressed to the Chief Counsel, Operations Policy. These policies were prepared for use by World Bank staff

Three important definitions

Here are two important definitions taken from a legal dictionary:

• 1. A de jure government is one which has been created in respect of constitutional law and is in all ways legitimate.
  2. A de facto government is one which has seized power by force or in any other unconstitutional method

And here is the ONLY definition of a constitution that results in true democracy:

• “A Charter of government deriving its whole authority from the governed”.

So the actual situation in BC today is that the present provincial government is using a statute to serve as a provincial constitution. That is not acceptable. A statute is not a constitution. The two definitions are mutually exclusive. According to the World Bank definition the BC government is de facto - not lawful. It has no legitimate authority to pass statutes with the force of law. This is a serious situation.
What can British Columbians do to help correct this constitutional void ?
The main aim of the BC Refederation Party is to make the government of BC fully accountable to the electorate, and that starts with putting BC’s constitutional house in order. BC Refed has drafted the text of a “Constitution of British Columbia” for approval by BC voters. It is in two stages.
In stage one

• a BC Refed government in Victoria will promptly declare the people of BC to be the sole source of political rights in the province, and will have the decree approved by the electorate in a referendum vote. That will enshrine the Doctrine of the Supremacy of the People over the Legislature.

In stage two

• the large task of building the rest of BC’s first constitution will be carried out, for approval by the people.

During this time the present BC Constitution Act will be replaced by a BC Constitutional Powers Transition Act to ensure the orderly continuation of government until the full Constitution of British Columbia is approved by the electorate.

BC citizens can help by publicizing the province’s constitutional problem, and by persuading all provincial parties that they are all competing for election to office in an unconstitutional system. All provincial parties should join a non-partisan movement to have the BC constitutional situation corrected and the province put on a sound constitutional basis.

Think Refed.

More articles on BC constitutional issues [on the main menu]

* Read the draft text of BC Refed’s “Constitution of British Columbia”. * Read 30 questions about the authority of Canada’s central government to govern the country. * Read a few provisions of the present BC Constitution Act that puts all power in the hands of one person and excludes the people. This is the statute that controls everything in your life.

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