Carol Baldwin
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Wakaw Recorder
A petition initiated by Lisa Salazar from Vancouver, British Columbia, calls on the Federal Government to utilize Section 90 of the Constitution Act: the Power of Disallowance.
In Canadian constitutional law, the powers of reservation and disallowance of federal legislation are found in sections 55 and 56 of the Constitution Act, 1867, and are extended to provincial legislation by section 90. The initial intent of disallowance, and its practice for the first few years of Confederation, was a means of ensuring parliament enacted legislation compliant with the constitution.
Disallowance is the decision by a viceregal representative of the Crown to veto an act of the Canadian parliament, or a provincial or territorial legislature, and the act ceases in legal effect upon Disallowance. The Victoria Charter of 1971 would have eliminated ‘reservation and disallowance’ from Canada’s Constitution, but the extensive changes made to the Constitution in 1982 left both powers intact, when then Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau expressly included the retention of the powers of Reservation and Disallowance in the final text in exchange for the creation of the Notwithstanding Clause, the provision in the Canadian Constitution that allows a law to operate despite certain other legal rules, rights, or principles that might otherwise conflict with it.
There has been no formal amendment to erase the Federal Disallowance Power. The Federal Disallowance Power, as a tool of Canada’s duly elected government rather than of any individual province’s, gives the rest of Canada a democratically legitimate (being a device of a democratically elected federal government) avenue for countering provincial infringements of minority rights. (Charlotte Dalwood, “Original Powers: Reviving the Federal Disallowance Power to Combat Anti-Trans Legislation” (23 April 2024))
Disallowance of an act of a provincial legislature by the Governor General in Council is facilitated through an Order in Council. The Order in Council is sent to the Lieutenant Governor of the province with the receipt for the day the provincial act was received by the Governor General. In accordance with Sections 56 and 90 of the Constitution Act, the lieutenant governor must advise the legislature of the disallowance, either by speech, message, or proclamation. The act is officially annulled and no longer a valid law on the day the lieutenant governor advised the legislature of the disallowance.
Don Davies, MP for Vancouver Kingsway, New Democratic Party Caucus, is reportedly preparing to present the petition once signatures close. A transcript of the petition follows:
Petition to the Minister of Health
Whereas:
· The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms exists to protect individuals and minority communities from discriminatory laws;
· Recent legislation enacted by the Governments of Alberta and Saskatchewan restricts the rights, dignity, and safety of transgender and gender-diverse people, particularly children and youth, including access to gender-affirming and medically appropriate health care;
· These provincial governments have invoked the notwithstanding clause to shield such legislation from judicial review, thereby preventing Charter challenges from being meaningfully heard;
· The Constitution Act, 1867 provides the federal government, through section 90, with the authority to disallow certain provincial legislation in order to protect constitutional principles and minority rights; and
· The use of extraordinary constitutional powers to limit Charter protections warrants careful federal review and response.
We, the undersigned, Concerned Allies of Transgender Canadians, call upon the Minister of Health to Recommend and support, within Cabinet, the exercise of the Government of Canada’s constitutional authority, including the power of disallowance under section 90 of the Constitution Act, 1867, to annul or repeal provincial legislation enacted in Alberta and Saskatchewan that restricts the rights of transgender and gender-diverse people and has been shielded from Charter scrutiny through the use of the notwithstanding clause, and to affirm the federal government’s responsibility to uphold Charter rights across Canada.
The petition opened for signatures on December 18, 2025, at 12:36 p.m. (EDT) and will close February 16, 2026, at 12:36 p.m. (EDT). As of December 31st, the petition has garnered nearly 23,000 signatures.
Anyone interested in signing the petition can find it at https://www.ourcommons.ca/petitions/en/Petition/Details?Petition=e-7027
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