Word: canadians
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...Language is the first thing; language is the vehicle for thinking," Gratia O'Leary, an avowed separatist and Levesque's press secretary, said last week. The most obvious difference between Quebecers and "les anglais," the language issue has been a constant irritant in Canadian politics. The British North America Act, which became Canada's constitution in 1867, attempts to perpetuate a nation of two languages and Federal ministers have struggled to institute bi-lingualism by requiring manufacturers to label all products in both English and French, encouraging English in Quebec schools, and introducing French in schools outside Quebec. More...
...speak this language." Little French is spoken west of Ontario, and many people in the western provinces resent having to learn another language. Some feel that the government takes their taxes in order to "shove French down their throats." This attitude is obviously not conducive to the preservation of Canadian unity...
Marc Lalonde, federal Minister of Health and Welfare and leader of the Quebec wing of the federal Liberal Party, declared last month to the Canadian Institute on Public Affairs: "How can we, French-speaking Canadians, take seriously the perfunctory exercise that is taking place in most English-language school systems in Canada? It shows an agonizing lack of determination, a dragging of feet, a purely lip-service commitment to the notion of two official languages in Canada...
John Fraser, Member of Parliament from Vancouver South, British Columbia, explained current Quebecois separatist aspirations at a level deeper than language differences. "It doesn't matter which one you scratch, you find a French-Canadian nationalist," he said last week, refering to French-Canadian Quebecers. "They look upon Quebec and themselves as a separate nation. They do not see themselves culturally or ethnically as part of the English-speaking mosaic of the rest of the country...
Many English-Canadians do not agree that it is in their interest to continue economic ties with a breakaway Quebec. Federal Finance Minister Donald MacDonald told New Yorkers last March 10 that "nobody in his right mind" can believe that a breakaway Quebec would be welcome in an economic union with the remaining Canadian provinces...