Page "Constitution of Canada" Paragraph 2

The first semblance of a constitution for Canada was the Royal Proclamation of 1763.

The act renamed the northeasterly portion of the former French province of New France as Province of Quebec, roughly coextensive with the lower third of contemporary Quebec.

The proclamation, which established an appointed colonial government, was the de facto constitution of Quebec until 1774, when the British parliament passed the Quebec Act, which expanded the province's boundaries to the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, which was one of the grievances listed in the United States Declaration of Independence.

Significantly, the Quebec Act also replaced the French criminal law presumption of guilty until proven innocent with the English criminal law presumption of innocent until proven guilty ; but the French code or civil law system was retained for non-criminal matters.