From 1960 to 1982 Barry L. Strayer was instrumental in the design of The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the patriation of Canada's Constitution. Here Dr. Strayer shares his experiences as a key legal advisor with a clear, personal voice that yields an insightful contribution to Canadian history and political memoir. He discusses the personal philosophies of Pierre Trudeau and F.R. Scott in addition to his meticulous accounts of the events and people involved in Canada's constitutional reform, and the consequences of that reform, which reveal that it was truly a revolution. This is an accessible primary source for experts and non-specialists interested in constitutional history studies, political history of patriation and The Charter, interpretation of The Charter, and the nature of judicial review.

BARRY L. STRAYER received his B.A. and LL.B. from the University of Saskatchewan and attended Oxford for his Bachelor of Civil Law degree. After a year as an instructor in law at the University of Saskatchewan he joined the Department of the Attorney General of Saskatchewan where he had occasion to advise on a variety of constitutional problems. He has also acted as a consultant to the government of Saskatchewan on various constitutional matters, and was appointed in 1967 by the Honourable P.E. Trudeau as an adviser to Mr. H. Carl Goldenberg, Q.C., his Spcial Counsel on the Constitution. In 1966 he received his Doctor of Juridical Science from Harvard University, and is, at present, Professor Law at the University of Saskatchewan.

Barry L. Strayer's profile page

"Barry L. Strayer's book about the formation of Canada's present constitutional order, and his own role in it, joins a short and distinctive shelf of similarly erudite yet also entertaining legal memoirs.... What could easily have been an unrelievedly ponderous exposition of constitutional law and history is leavened by Strayer's disarmingly informal and witty recollections of the leading personalities in Canadian politics from the 1950s to the 1980s.... Canada's constitutional revolution has worked overwhelmingly positive changes for that country, advancing the dignity and stature of a great nation and providing a globally relevant model for protecting human rights and individual freedom. For that and other reasons, Judge Strayer can look back with pride on his life's work." [Full review at https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=39911]

H-Net Reviews

"The Hon. Barry L. Strayer was instrumental in designing Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the 1982 repatriation of the Constitution. In Canada's Constitutional Revolution, the retired federal court judge recalls his involvement as a legal adviser during the period of constitutional reform from 1960 to '82." Quill & Quire

"[On April 27, 1982, Queen Elizabeth signed the Constitution Act on Parliament Hill.] For nearly 15 years [Barry Strayer] had toiled mightily in the labyrinthine structures of federal constitutional planning and in the chambers of federal-provincial negotiations to get to just this moment. In Ottawa that day Canada's sovereignty was formalized; it gained untrammelled authority over its own constitution and it declared its subscription to human rights. Strayer was crucial to the federal government's constitutional endeavours, from policy consulting with the prime minister to reassuring parliamentarians, to preparing court cases, to organizing strategic planning and the writing of constitutional drafts. He was at the very centre of Canada's modern constitutional moment." John D. Whyte, Literary Review of Canada, May 2013

"...a cogent, thorough, and diverting narrative of his time as a top-level constitutional advisor to the Lester B. Pearson and Pierre Trudeau Liberal governments.... In broad terms, the book is a meditation on the intellectual and political complexity of the transition, in a federal system, from a regime of legislative supremacy to one of constitutional supremacy..... The tone of the book is principally serious and scholarly, and provides a detailed and technical first-hand analysis of the development of the Charter and the Canada Act 1982."

Saskatchewan Law Review