February 8, 1868

NOVA SCOTIA RESOLUTIONS AGAINST CONFEDERATION

The real business of the Nova Scotia Legislature, being the attempt to undo the Act of Confederation, has been laid on the table in a series of 15 resolutions to be debated today. The resolutions are summarized here:

• The first resolution declares that the Legislative Assembly of Nova Scotia convened in 1863 had no authority to make or consent to material changes to the constitution of the colony without submitting those changes to the voters for approval;
• Resolutions 2 through 4 declare that the delegation assembled to negotiate the Union was improperly constituted therefore doubly over-stepped its bounds, first by arranging the Union without including Newfoundland and Prince Edward Island and second, doing so while not adhering to the terms of its founding resolution;
• Resolution 5 states that the delegation did not “ensure just provision for the rights and interests” of Nova Scotia by agreeing to an arrangement that degrades the province to a dependency of Canada;
• Resolution 6 and 7 states that changes to the provincial constitution could only be made by submitting them to the public at the polls and this was not done until two-and-a-half months after the Queen’s Proclamation, which deprived the people of their liberty;
• Resolution 8 states that without any provincial legislation confirming the British North America Act, of which there is none, the province has not consented to its inclusion in the Union;
• Resolution 9 states that the preamble of the British North America Act claims the “desire of Nova Scotia to be confederated” is patently untrue, rendering the Act unconstitutional;
• Resolution 10 states that the provincial government systematically kept the proposal from the people, ignoring petitions signed by thousands;
• Resolution 11 states that the September election was dominated solely by the issue of Confederation and the people expressed their desire to not be annexed to Canada;
• Resolution 12 declares that the “Quebec Scheme” regardless of the way in which the Confederation was forced on the people of Nova Scotia, the terms of Confederation have created “wide-spread irritation and discontent” and need to be withdrawn;
• Resolution 13 declares that the colonies were already “politically allied to each other by their common relationship to the Queen and her Empire”. Such alliance was “more peaceable and less dangerous” than what any form of Confederation could encourage;
• Resolution 14 absolves the Queen and Her Parliament of any intentional injustice. The fraud was perpetrated by those who misrepresented the public will of Nova Scotia and “desired that Confederation might be forced upon this Province, without consent and against the will of the people;
• Resolution 15 requests an address be made to the Queen, containing the substance of the resolutions, “informing Her Majesty, that her loyal people of Nova Scotia, do not desire to be in any manner confederated with Canada, and praying Her Majesty to revoke her Proclamation, and to cause the British North America Act to be repealed, as far as it affects the Province of Nova Scotia.