In December 2024, a documentary film entitled ‘Canada the Illusion’ was released on multiple on-line platforms with a descriptive: “This film is entirely based on facts and not on opinions.” Produced by Timm Stein in collaboration with Xander La Rue, Doug Force, and The Myth is Canada, the documentary delivers a painfully detailed legal and political history of how the nation known as Canada came into being. And then ceased to be.
Citing the Statute of Westminster (December 11, 1931) as the most important document defining the land mass known as Canada, the documentary concludes that from that point forward, the nation of Canada ceased to exist as a sovereign entity. The provinces, because they owned the land, became sovereign states unto themselves. Consequently, every piece of federal legislation passed after December 11, 1931 is invalid and lacks any authority to enforce it.
As implausible as this sounds (as it also did to the documentary’s producers), there appears to be no way to dispute this conclusion based on Canada’s legal and political history, documented at every step of the way. So how could it be that a nation called ‘Canada’ has carried on as such irrespective of its history and relevant laws?
One cannot help but notice that Canadian law and politics are in complete disarray, wherein operable principles and processes have been completely replaced by the whim of politicians. This condition has arisen because no one successfully challenged this practice, and over time, it became the ‘conventional’ way to govern in Canada.
A perfect example of this was seen when Ontario premier Doug Ford’s government ran political ads concerning American political issues in the United States. Ford himself has stressed that the ads were intended for an American audience only, thus illustrating how irrelevant the issue of defined political jurisdictions has become.
Ford’s actions resulted in Donald Trump’s stopping all trade talks with Canada. Given Canada’s precarious legal status as a nation, Donald Trump may have more grounds for envisaging Canada as a 51st state than he imagines.
The uncomfortable reality underlying all of these issues is that nations are ultimately governed not by laws, rules, or regulations, but by ‘convention.’
It doesn’t matter what the laws of a given nation may proscribe if no one is obeying or enforcing them. Such laws are not worth the paper they’re written on. In fact, such laws create a great disrespect for, and distrust of, government.
When people do accept and obey certain laws which are enforced by government, then those laws are valid. And government becomes relatively trustworthy again.
Aligning a nation’s laws and written procedures with conventional practice is both a challenge and objective that is part of democratic debate. Every democratic nation is a permanent work in process, transcending many generations; there are no immutable laws or structures capable of preserving or protecting any traditions that would identify a ‘finished’ or happily static society.
Whether one is governed by laws or by convention is really secondary to the task of discovering the proper principles – and practices – that can foster a culture of individual freedom.
Ultimately, the recognition that we are mostly governed or ruled by ‘convention’ neither threatens nor resolves the eternal issue regarding which of those conventions are Just Right for freedom.
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