Separatism Is Canada Coming Apart?

By Bruce W. Nelan

Mikhail Gorbachev is not the only leader with separation anxieties. Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney is also finding it difficult keeping his vast nation together, and Canada has only two warring nationalities.

For decades, the French-speaking majority in Quebec has sought official recognition as a "distinct society" within the overwhelmingly English- speaking nation. Three years ago, at a meeting with the ten provincial premiers at Meech Lake in the Gatineau hills of Quebec, Mulroney devised a set of amendments that would finally satisfy the demands of the Quebecois and bring them to sign the national constitution "with honor and enthusiasm." But by last week the Meech Lake accord had turned a symbol of renewed division and intolerance between English- and French-speaking Canadians.

Three provinces reject it, in part because they claim it would grant special status to Quebec. Unless something happens to resolve the disagreement by the June 23 deadline for the accord's final approval, Canadians will have to face the possibility of a national rupture. They were jolted by a small sample of it last week when Mulroney's most important ally from Quebec, Environment Minister Lucien Bouchard, resigned from the government over what he sees as English-Canadian intransigence, saying, "This country doesn't work anymore. We have to remake it."

Canada tried to do that when it rewrote its constitution in 1982 to add a bill of rights, but the then separatist government of Quebec refused to endorse the new document. The Meech Lake accord, based on proposals put forward by Quebec's Premier Robert Bourassa, was designed to overcome the province's opposition. Since then, however, newly elected governments in Manitoba, New Brunswick and Newfoundland have refused to ratify it. The holdouts argue that the accord grants Quebec special legislative powers over language and culture that other provinces do not have, and could endanger the civil rights of non-French minorities in Quebec.

An all-party committee in Ottawa's House of Commons two weeks ago tried to break the stalemate by suggesting the House pass both the accord and a "companion resolution" that would take account of the three provinces' objections.

That proposal brought on the resignations of Bouchard and two Quebec backbenchers from the ruling party, who insist that the accord should be passed untouched and undiluted by legislative interpretations. Bouchard now says he thinks the much discussed but still vague idea of a Quebec that is / politically sovereign but retains economic links with Canada "makes sense." Quebec, he complains, "is dying of ambiguity." Mulroney replaced Bouchard as his political lieutenant in Quebec with Industry Minister Benoit Bouchard (no relation), who said on national television that Quebec is "tired of being misunderstood." He warned, "What we have to understand is that this country is within four weeks of collapsing."

It might not be quite that bad, since most Canadians seem to believe that the provinces will eventually cut a deal. But pressure from a worried public is mounting on English- and French-speaking politicians alike for a solution to the impasse. Last week Mulroney began calling in the provincial premiers one by one for jawboning at his official residence in an attempt to forge a compromise. The sight of all that activity was reassuring, but Canadians are tensely aware that if it fails, the Meech Lake accord will die, and Canada's federation could be in serious jeopardy.