Last week, Quebec Premier François Legault’s Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) government tabled Bill 1, which aims to provide the province with a constitution. Yet the text of the document and the process that led to it are so controversial that they constitute a masterclass in how not to write a constitution.

To be clear, every province has a constitution, composed of relevant clauses from the Constitution acts of 1867 and 1982, along with provincial legislation, constitutional customs and jurisprudence. Any province could decide to assemble those scattered parts and group them in a single act, as British Columbia did in 1996.

Each province can also amend its constitution, which is what Alberta did in 1990 by adopting its Constitution of Alberta Amendment Act. Therefore, there is nothing e

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