<P> If the Governor General of Canada is unable to give assent, it can be done by either the Deputy of the Governor General of Canada--the Chief Justice of Canada--or another justice of the Supreme Court of Canada . It is not actually necessary for the governor general to sign a bill passed by a legislature, the signature being merely an attestation . In each case, the parliament must be apprised of the granting of assent before the bill is considered to have become law . Two methods are available: the sovereign's representatives may grant assent in the presence of both houses of parliament; alternatively, each house may be notified separately, usually by the speaker of that house . However, though both houses must be notified on the same day, notice to the House of Commons while it is not in session may be given by way of publishing a special issue of the Journals of the House of Commons, whereas the Senate must be sitting and the governor general's letter read aloud by the speaker . </P> <P> At both state and federal realms in Australia, assent is used as the means of enforcing a referendum that is required . This is done by providing that it will not be lawful to even submit the law for viceregal assent unless and until it has been approved by the required percentage of the voting populace at a referendum . </P> <P> While royal assent has not been withheld in the United Kingdom since 1708, it has often been withheld in British colonies and former colonies by governors acting on royal instructions . In the United States Declaration of Independence, colonists complained that George III "has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good (and) has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them ." Even after colonies such as Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the Union of South Africa, and Newfoundland were granted responsible government, the British government continued to sometimes advise governors - general on the granting of assent; assent was also occasionally reserved to allow the British government to examine a bill before advising the governor - general . </P> <P> Since the Balfour Declaration of 1926 and the Statute of Westminster 1931, all the Commonwealth realms have been sovereign kingdoms, the monarch and governors - general acting solely on the advice of the local ministers, who generally maintain the support of the legislature and are the ones who secure the passage of bills . They therefore are unlikely to advise the sovereign, or his or her representative, to withhold assent . The power to withhold the royal assent was exercised by Alberta's lieutenant governor, John C. Bowen, in 1937, in respect of three bills passed in the legislature dominated by William Aberhart's Social Credit party . Two bills sought to put banks under the authority of the province, thereby interfering with the federal government's powers . The third, the Accurate News and Information Bill, purported to force newspapers to print government rebuttals to stories to which the provincial cabinet objected . The unconstitutionality of all three bills was later confirmed by the Supreme Court of Canada and by the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council . </P>

When was the last time an english monarch vetoed an act of parliament