Opinion: Quebec deserves a constitution built by its citizens, not handed down by government

By any measure, the adoption of a constitution is among the most important political acts a society can undertake. It defines how power is exercised, how rights are protected and how governments are restrained.

A constitution is a political contract between citizens and the state that sets the rules by which the people’s power is granted, exercised and restrained. It defines the rights citizens retain, the duties governments owe and the institutions through which public authority must operate and be constrained.

That is why Quebecers should pay close attention to Bill 1 — the CAQ government’s proposed Quebec constitution — and any effort to revive it before the October election.

The question is not whether Quebec may choose to articulate its constitutional identity. Of course it may. Many societies periodically revisit their governing principles and political traditions. The issue is not the legitimacy of constitutional reflection, but whether the development and legislative path of Bill 1 reflect democratic best practice.

A constitution worthy of the name should not simply affirm the power of the state; it must also limit it. Otherwise, parliamentary majorities merely replace absolute monarchs in their capacity to restrict individual and collective liberties. That historical lesson led to the development of institutional safeguards: independent courts, entrenched rights, bicameral scrutiny, constitutional review and stronger protections for minorities.

Premier Christine Fréchette has an opportunity to halt the rushed and closed process that characterized Bill 1 and to champion a different approach, writes Stephen Thompson. Evan Buhler / Montreal Gazette

France offers an instructive example. The French republican tradition long emphasized parliamentary sovereignty. Yet the institutions of the Fifth Republic evolved to include the Conseil constitutionnel, which now plays an important role reviewing legislation and protecting constitutional norms.

Mature democracies tend not to rely on the goodwill of those in power; they build enforceable guardrails and limits on state power.

Quebec should do the same.

Any provincial constitution that concentrates authority in the legislature and executive, while offering weak checks on the use of that power, would place Quebec outside the mainstream evolution of liberal democratic governance. It would be especially troubling in a plural society composed of francophones, anglophones, Indigenous peoples, immigrants, religious minorities and citizens holding a wide range of political views.

A constitution must belong to all of us.

That requires more than the passage of a government bill. It requires a genuine constituent process — open, serious and credible. No governing party, regardless of popularity, should presume to settle foundational constitutional questions alone.

Premier Christine Fréchette has an opportunity to halt the rushed and closed process that characterized Bill 1 and to champion a different approach by launching a broad public consultation on Quebec’s constitutional future.

This process should involve all represented political parties in the National Assembly. It should invite participation from trade unions, business organizations, municipalities, Indigenous leadership, civil society groups, language-community institutions and youth representatives. It should also be guided by an expert advisory body composed of constitutional scholars, historians, sociologists, political scientists and political philosophers.

A constitution gains legitimacy not from slogans or words printed on paper, but from the consent of the governed. It gains durability from broad acceptance as a normative expression of the nation. And it gains moral authority when citizens can see themselves reflected in the process by which it is made.

Quebec has the intellectual resources, democratic maturity and political talent to undertake such an exercise properly. It should resist the temptation to do it quickly, narrowly or performatively.

If Quebec is to have a constitution, let it be one built by Quebecers together. That would be an achievement worthy of the name.

Stephen Thompson served as a senior policy adviser to civil society organizations serving the English-speaking community of Quebec, including TALQ and the Quebec English School Boards Association. He holds a master of laws in constitutional law from Osgoode Hall Law School and lives in Mont-St-Hilaire.

The post Opinion: Quebec deserves a constitution built by its citizens, not handed down by government appeared first on Montreal Gazette.