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Parliament of Canada Act 1875

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Parliament of Canada Act (1875)

Clarified the power of the Canadian Parliament to legislate over, "privileges, immunities, and powers of," its members

73237Parliament of Canada Act1875


38 & 39 Victoria, c. 38 (U.K.)


An Act to remove certain doubts with respect to the powers of the Parliament of Canada under section eighteen of the Constitution Act, 1867


[Assented to 19th July, 1875.]


 Whereas by section eighteen of the British North America Act, 1867, it is provided as follows: "The privileges, immunities, and powers to be held, enjoyed, and exercised by the Senate and by the House of Commons, and by the members thereof respectively, shall be such as are from time to time defined by Act of the Parliament of Canada, but so that the same shall never exceed those at the passing of this Act held, enjoyed, and exercised by the Commons House of Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and by the members thereof:"

And whereas doubts have arisen with regard to the power of defining by an Act of the Parliament of Canada, in pursuance of the said section, the said privileges, powers, or immunities; and it is expedient to remove such doubts:

Be it therefore enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:


Substitution of new section for section 18 of 30 & 31 Vict. c. 3.

1. Section eighteen of the Constitution Act, is hereby repealed, without prejudice to anything done under that section, and the following section shall be substituted for the section so repealed.




 The privileges, immunities, and powers to be held. enjoyed, and exercised by the Senate and by the House of Commons, and by the members thereof respectively, shall be such as are from time to time defined by Act of the Parliament of Canada, but so that any Act of the Parliament of Canada defining such privileges, immunities, and powers shall not confer any privileges, immunities, or powers exceeding those at the passing of such Act held, enjoyed, and exercised by the Commons House of Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and by the members thereof.


Confirmation of Act of Parliament of Canada, 31 & 32 Vict. c. 24.

2. The Act of the Parliament of Canada passed in the thirty-first year of the reign of Her present Majesty, chapter twenty-four, intituled "An Act to provide for Oaths to Witnesses being administered in certain cases for the purposes of either House of Parliament," shall be deemed to be valid, and to have been valid as from the date at which the royal assent was given thereto by the Governor-General of the Dominion of Canada.

Short title.

3. This Act may be cited as the Parliament of Canada Act, 1875.



This work is in the public domain worldwide because it is one of the following types of legislation in the United Kingdom or its predecessor states, and received Royal Assent or the approval of HM in Council (as applicable) before 1974:

See section 164 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (as amended).

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