<P> Legislative restrictions on Canadian immigration that had favoured British and other European immigrants were amended in the 1960s, opening the doors to immigrants from all parts of the world . While the 1950s had seen high levels of immigration from Britain, Ireland, Italy, and northern continental Europe, by the 1970s immigrants increasingly came from India, China, Vietnam, Jamaica and Haiti . Immigrants of all backgrounds tended to settle in the major urban centres, particularly Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver . </P> <P> During his long tenure in the office (1968--79, 1980--84), Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau made social and cultural change his political goals, including the pursuit of official bilingualism in Canada and plans for significant constitutional change . The west, particularly the petroleum - producing provinces like Alberta, opposed many of the policies emanating from central Canada, with the National Energy Program creating considerable antagonism and growing western alienation . Multiculturalism in Canada was adopted as the official policy of the Canadian government during the prime ministership of Pierre Trudeau . </P> <P> In 1981, the Canadian House of Commons and Senate passed a resolution requesting that the British Parliament enact a package of constitutional amendments which would end the last powers of the British Parliament to legislate for Canada and would create an entirely Canadian process for constitutional amendments . The resolution set out the text of the proposed Canada Act, which also included the text of the Constitution Act, 1982 . The British Parliament duly passed the Canada Act 1982, the Queen granting Royal Assent on March 29, 1982, 115 years to the day since Queen Victoria granted Royal Assent to the Constitution Act, 1867 . On April 17, 1982, the Queen signed the Proclamation on the grounds of Parliament Hill in Ottawa bringing the Constitution Act, 1982 into force, thus patriating the Constitution of Canada . Previously, the main portions of the constitution had existed only as an act passed of the British parliament, though under the terms of the Statute of Westminster, it could not be altered without Canadian consent . Canada had established complete sovereignty as an independent country, with the Queen's role as monarch of Canada separate from her role as the British monarch or the monarch of any of the other Commonwealth realms . </P> <P> In addition to the enactment of a Canadian amending formulas, the Constitution Act, 1982 enacted the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms . The Charter is a constitutionally entrenched bill of rights which applies to both the federal government and the provincial governments, unlike the earlier Canadian Bill of Rights . The patriation of the constitution was Trudeau's last major act as Prime Minister; he resigned in 1984 . </P>

When did canada become independent of the british empire