Atmosphere of Urgency

Canada's ten provincial premiers met with Prime Minister Lester Pearson in Ottawa last week to attack a problem that has bothered Canada for more than a century. Pearson was seriously concerned about the country's 6,000,000 French Canadians, who in recent years have felt increasingly isolated and restless among Canada's English-speaking majority--so much so that many of them have begun to call for the outright secession of French-speaking Quebec. Aware, as Pearson put it, that any such divorce would produce "rupture, and loss and pain," the ministers took only three days to agree on what they must do. They decided not only to rewrite the country's constitution but also to introduce a host of administrative changes that will make the French Canadians feel more at home everywhere in Canada. Even Quebec's Premier Daniel Johnson agreed that the French Canadians had been fairly treated. "This is," he said, "the greatest breaking down of barriers that has ever taken place in Canada."

Pearson warned that lack of action would eventually shatter the country. In this atmosphere of urgency, the premiers proceeded to adopt more than two-thirds of his proposals. They decided to work as a committee over the next few years to draw up changes in Canada's century-old constitution, including guarantees of linguistic and cultural equality for the French Canadian minority. Endorsing the broad reforms recommended by a Royal Commission, they vowed to break down Quebec's "ghetto complex" by setting up French as an official language along with English wherever large communities of French Canadians are found. Eight of the ten provinces announced that they would begin to hire more French-speaking teachers, translators and civil servants, and to print official documents in French as well as in English.

Fears & Ambitions. The premiers' debate, carried live on TV for three days, was an unprecedented airing of national issues. The ten men argued out their aspirations for Canada and their fears and doubts over the planned reforms, as well as their rivalries, regional ambitions and cultural prejudices. Though pleased with the conciliatory mood of the other leaders, Quebec's Johnson still wants more autonomy and authority than his province now has. He would like to see federal power shrink and Quebec get more tax money, provincial control over publicly owned radio and TV stations and even the right to carry on relations with foreign governments. Neither Pearson nor the other leaders are willing to go quite this far to conciliate the French Canadians.

Since he is retiring in April, Pearson will not be around for the fight over the crucial constitutional revisions. His successor will have the tough job of seeing the country through the reform.

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