Skip to main content Skip to search Skip to search

Law Civil Procedure

Meech Lake

The Inside Story

by (author) Patrick J. Monahan

Publisher
University of Toronto Press
Initial publish date
Dec 1991
Category
Civil Procedure, Constitutional, Canadian, Federal
  • eBook

    ISBN
    9781487576691
    Publish Date
    Dec 1991
    List Price
    $49.95

Classroom Resources

Where to buy it

Description

From behind the close doors of Meech Lake comes this insider's account of the negotiations that put Canada's future on the line. Patrick J. Monahan was there throughout the negotiations that began in the fall of 1986 and culminated in the week-long meeting of First Ministers in June 1990, after which the accord failed to be ratified. He tells a compelling story of deals and dealmakers, compromise and confrontation.

 

Many in English Canada believe that at Meech Lake the federal government sold out to the provinces, especially to Quebec, and that by conducting negotiations behind closed doors the government acted illegitimately. Not so, says Monahan. Far from being a sell-out, Meech represented a reasonable compromise between competing positions. Going back to the initial position put forward by the Bourassa government in 1986 he shows how that position was modified in the course of the negotiations. And closed doors, he argues, were essential in ensuring effective bargaining. There could have been no agreement without them.

 

Now, in the middle of 1991, Canada is once again negotiating its future existence. There are vital lessons to be learned from the Meech Lake round; Monahan articulates some of those lessons, and indicates how they ought to figure in the current process. Canadians, he argues, ignore them at their country's peril.

About the author

Patrick Monahan is Deputy Attorney General of Ontario and a Professor of Law (on leave) from Osgoode Hall Law School of York University, where he served as Dean from 2003–2009. He also served as Vice President Academic and Provost of York University from 2009–2012. He has written widely on constitutional and public policy issues and was awarded the David Mundell Medal for excellence in legal writing in 2008.

Patrick J. Monahan's profile page