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Annex A: The Crown Prerogative

Summary

  • The Crown Prerogative is a source of executive legal authority vested in the Crown and exercised by the political executive: Cabinet, Cabinet Committee, the Prime Minister, and certain Ministers, including the Minister of National Defence.
  • The Crown Prerogative is a long-standing, constitutionally founded and legally recognized source of executive authority – separate and distinct from authorities granted to the Crown by statute. Its scope and content have been shaped by the common law through judicial decisions.
  • It is the principal source of domestic legal authority for the international operations of the Canadian Armed Forces, and also provides authority for certain operations in Canada. It is also a source of authority for some activities conducted by other Government of Canada entities, such as the Privy Council Office and Global Affairs Canada.
  • Canada's closest allies, including the United Kingdom, Australia, and the United States, all retain a strong role for the political executive in authorizing the deployment and/or employment of their armed forces and other defence capabilities.
  • The exercise of the Crown Prerogative is subject to judicial review and democratic accountability within Canada's system of responsible government.

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Authorities for Canadian Armed Forces operations generally

  1. All Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) operations and activities must be:
    1. authorized by law, and,
    2. conducted in accordance with applicable Canadian and international law.
  2. The specific laws that apply to a given CAF operation will depend on the nature of that operation, its location, the context in which it is being conducted (e.g. during armed conflict vs. peacetime), and Canada's role (e.g. as a party to the conflict or supporting others).
  3. CAF operations in Canada: require a Canadian domestic legal authority, which will be found in one or both of the following sources:
    1. An exercise of the Crown Prerogative (e.g. Order in Council, Cabinet/Prime Ministerial/Ministerial direction, etc.); and/or,
    2. Legislation (e.g. National Defence Act (NDA) s.273.6(1) public service or s.273.6(2) assistance to law enforcement).
  4. International CAF operations: require both a Canadian domestic legal authority (as set out above) as well as a separate authority in international law. International legal authorities may generally be found in one or more of the following sources:
    1. United Nations (UN) Security Council Resolution(s) authorizing the use of military force;
    2. An exercise of Canada's right of individual or collective self-defence consistent with article 51 of the UN Charter; and/or,
    3. The consent of the foreign state, on whose territory the operation takes place, to the presence and operations of the CAF.

What is the Crown Prerogative?

  1. The Crown Prerogative consists of, "the powers and privileges accorded by the common law to the Crown."Footnote 1 It is a long-standing and legally valid source of executive authority – separate and distinct from authorities granted to the Crown by statute. The Crown Prerogative has a foundation in Canada's constitutional framework and its scope and content have been shaped through judicial decisions.
  2. The Crown Prerogative is exercised by the executive to carry out a range of government functions, from routine daily business to the most fundamental matters of state. Over time, Canadian courts have determined the scope of the Crown Prerogative to include the following matters:
    "Foreign affairs, war and peace, treaty-making, other acts of state in matters of foreign affairs, and defence and the armed forces. Other powers and privileges considered Crown prerogatives include those respecting passports, power of mercy, diplomatic appointments, public inquires, hiring and dismissal of public servants, the administration and disposal of public lands, copyright, armorial bearings, and honours and titles."Footnote 2
  3. Canada's system of government, with legal authorities and responsibilities constitutionally shared amongst the legislative, executive, and judicial branches, clearly recognizes that there are a number of powers that remain properly vested in, and exercised by, the Crown for valid and important reasons.

The Crown Prerogative in matters of defence

  1. The most relevant source of prerogative authority for the Department of National Defence (DND) and the CAF is the Crown Prerogative relating to Defence, which provides the legal basis for nearly all Government of Canada (GC) direction for the conduct of international military operations, as well as authority for certain operations in Canada.Footnote 3 As noted above, the executive exercises the Crown Prerogative in matters of "war and peace" and "defence and the armed forces" (which includes the employment and deployment of the CAF), and is therefore empowered to make decisions about where and when to deploy the military. Depending on the nature and location of a proposed CAF operation, the Crown Prerogative for Foreign Affairs may also be implicated.
  2. In Canada, Parliament has no legal role to play in the exercise of the prerogative regarding deployment decisions. Although governments may occasionally hold a "take note" debate or otherwise engage Parliament on proposed military deployments, there is no requirement to obtain Parliamentary approval, nor has it been established that a constitutional convention exists to consult Parliament on such matters. That being said, it is important to recognize that Parliament has the exclusive authority to pass legislation related to defence (for example, the NDA), establishing the framework and structure of the military, and addressing matters of materiel and supply. This can be a factor when considering accountability for the responsible exercise of the Crown Prerogative, discussed in greater detail below.

Who can exercise the Crown Prerogative?

  1. By law and convention, the Crown Prerogative is exercised by Cabinet (being the operative part of the constitutionally mandated Privy Council), by Cabinet committee, by the Prime Minister (PM) individually (having the authority to determine the consensus of Cabinet), or in certain cases as appropriate, by individual Ministers of the Crown having responsibility for particular matters such as defence and foreign affairs (acting either alone or in combination with each other). Generally, the Crown Prerogative cannot be exercised or delegated below the Ministerial level.

  2. The question of who can exercise the Crown Prerogative to authorize a particular military operation is highly dependent on the context, and is generally a matter of internal policies, practices or understandings within Cabinet itself. ██████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████

  3. Crown Prerogative decisions regarding the deployment or employment of the CAF will typically be communicated to MND if made by the PM, shared with MND following Cabinet meetings in which MND participated, or will originate from MND if the prerogative is being exercised at the Minister's level. In any event, MND will subsequently authorize the Chief of the Defence Staff (CDS)Footnote 4 and the Deputy Minister (DM) to issue the necessary directions to military commanders and departmental officials (respectively) for the implementation of those decisions. Subordinate military commanders will then issue their own direction down the chain of command, all of which is subject to legal and policy review to ensure that the ultimate orders received by CAF members conducting operations are fully compliant with government direction and the law.

  4. ███████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████ Regardless of whether the military is deployed under executive or legislative authorities, though, all operations must comply with applicable domestic laws, including – among others – those related to criminal and disciplinary matters, use of force, funding of operations, as well as contracting and procurement.

Accountability for exercise of the Crown Prerogative

  1. Decisions made in the executive's exercise of the Crown Prerogative are subject to judicial review.Footnote 5

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  3. Cabinet ministers, in their roles as elected members of Parliament, are fully subject to democratic accountability with respect to their exercise of the Crown Prerogative. The constitutional conventions defining responsible government (where cabinet ministers are drawn from the body of elected members of Parliament, and remain accountable to that body for their actions) ensure all executive activities are subject to Parliamentary scrutiny. Ministers are subject to questions from opposition members in the House of Commons, the government must maintain the confidence of the House with respect to key government decisions and policies (including the budget), and, ultimately, the government is subject to the will of the Canadian public at election time should government decisions prove controversial or unpopular. As such, Canada's constitutional system of responsible government ensures that the exercise of the Crown Prerogative is always subject to democratic control.

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Relationship between the Crown Prerogative and legislation

  1. As a basic principle, the legislature may pass laws in areas occupied by the Crown Prerogative, subject to the legislature's constitutional competency to do so.Footnote 6 The specific legal effect of such legislation will depend on the nature of the powers in question, the express intent, scope, and wording of the proposed legislation, and potentially broader constitutional considerations.Footnote 7 Legislation must typically be drafted with the express intent of displacing the Crown Prerogative in order to have that effect, although there may be an argument that the doctrine of "necessary implication" could also operate to displace prerogative powers when the right factors are present.

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Conclusion

  1. The executive's exercise of the Crown Prerogative to authorize important defence activities, including the defence of Canada and North America as well as the international deployment and employment of the CAF, has been consistently recognized and accepted by all branches of Canada's government. Constitutionally founded and legally recognized, the scope and content of the Crown Prerogative has been shaped by the common law through judicial decisions, and its exercise is subject to judicial review and democratic accountability within Canada's system of responsible government.

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