The Constitution: crisis, what crisis?

Justin Trudeau was quite correct to reject Philippe Couillard’s constitutional proposal. The myth that Quebec is “out of the Constitution” is just that — a myth that has been carefully nurtured for decades for political and ideological reasons.

The Constitution Act of 1982 is not, has never been and never will be “a new Constitution.”

This act patriated our constitutional documents and added a much-needed Charter of Rights, an amending formula (two, in fact) and increased provincial rights on natural resources (that one is often forgotten). The remainder of the Constitution Act of 1867, formerly the British North America Act, was left unchanged.

I can understand the average citizen not grasping this technicality, but politicians (many of whom are lawyers), university professors and experienced reporters should know better than to suggest — as Louis Bernard, premier René Lévesque’s chief of staff, wrote in this newspaper a few years ago — that Quebec is constitutionally isolated or that there is a constitutional crisis in Canada.

High time to bury this myth once and for all.

André Bordeleau, Kirkland letters@montrealgazette.com