Concerning the precedent of a senator who was appointed following a consultation, I would like to clarify that it's nowhere on the record that the consultation was taken into account. The Prime Minister was absolutely free to do whatever he wanted at the time.
With respect to the Manitoba language rights reference where the Supreme Court dealt with this difficult issue, I would add that the legislature was illegally constituted under unconstitutional statutes--the legislature itself. So the comparison is obvious, I think.