09) REPLACE THE SENATE WITH AN ELECTED HOUSE OF NATIONALITIES

 

Central Committee, Communist Party of Canada, June 1‑2, 2013

 

            The latest scandals around corrupt Conservative senators Mike Duffy, Pamela Wallin and Patrick Brazeau have renewed the longstanding and justified demand to abolish this completely undemocratic relic of Canada's colonial past. From its inception, a seat in the Senate has been a lucrative reward for faithful political servants of the ruling class. Far from being a so‑called "chamber of sober second thought," it has always served as a buffer against any meaningful democratic reform of the Canadian state. In fact, the Senate was established to protect the interests of ruling cliques in the provinces which joined Confederation, at the expense of the national rights of oppressed peoples.

 

            The struggle to abolish the Senate must be placed within a truly democratic framework, rather than as an attempt to simply "rebalance" the federal and provincial power structures in the interests of competing sections of monopoly capital.

 

            The Communist Party of Canada calls to replace the Senate with a democratically elected body which would give the Aboriginal peoples (First Nations, Inuit, Métis), the Acadians, and Québec effective powers to control their own destinies. Such a fundamental constitutional reform, starting with the convening of a truly broad and representative Constituent Assembly, and a referendum to ratify the proposals from such a body, is needed to end the historic denial of Québec's status as a nation, and to recognize the full national, economic, social, and political equality of the Aboriginal peoples.

 

            We propose a confederal republic, eliminating the vestiges of the British colonial system, and based on a government consisting of two chambers: a reformed House of Commons, elected through a new system of mixed‑member proportional representation; and a House of Nationalities, composed of an equal number of elected representatives from Québec and from English‑speaking Canada, with guaranteed and significant representation from the Aboriginal peoples (First Nations, the Métis, the Inuit) and the Acadians. Each chamber should have the right to initiate legislation, but both would have to adopt the legislation for it to become law. Furthermore the Aboriginal peoples must have the right of veto on all matters pertaining to their national development. This structure will protect both fundamental democratic principles: equality of the rights of nations whatever their size, and majority rule.

 

            Structural changes reflecting this confederal arrangement would need to be made throughout the legal system and state apparatus, as part of entrenching the right of nations to self‑determination in the Canadian constitution. Urgent constitutional change must also extend to recognition of the role of municipalities within the Canadian state, guarantees for the rights of workers to organize and bargain collectively, and protections for the natural environment. The struggle for such reforms is crucial to the wider movement for democracy, social advance and socialism. Uniting the working class across the country will not be possible without combating national oppression and fighting to achieve a new, equal and voluntary partnership ofCanada's nations.

 

 (The above article is from the July 1-31, 2013, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $30/year, or $15 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $45 US per year; other overseas readers - $45 US or $50 CDN per year. Send to People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, BC, V5L 3J1.)