Word: meech
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Ever since, the Meech Lake agreement has been a catchall for discord, pitting English speakers against French, and Canada's eastern and western regions against the central provinces of Ontario and Quebec. In 1988 passions flared after Bourassa overrode a Canadian Supreme Court ruling by passing a law that banned English on outdoor commercial signs in Quebec. English speakers across the country expressed outrage, and some later engaged in highly publicized Quebec-flag stomping. About 60 municipalities have since passed symbolic ordinances declaring English their sole official tongue. Said - Mayor Joe Fratesi of Sault Sainte Marie, in explanation...
...other things, the document did not adequately protect its distinct French linguistic and cultural heritage, which is threatened by immigration and a provincial birthrate that is below replacement level. In a bid to resolve the impasse, Mulroney assembled the ten provincial premiers in April 1987 at a retreat at Meech Lake, Quebec. The group cobbled together constitutional amendments that met Quebec Premier Robert Bourassa's five "minimal" demands for more provincial power. Chief among the concessions was an affirmation of Quebec's right to preserve and promote its status as a "distinct society...
...June 23 deadline loomed, three provincial governments balked at ratification. Mulroney waited until the final weeks before the deadline to call the ten provincial premiers to Ottawa for a weeklong marathon of closed- door constitutional bargaining to win the dissidents over. The political leaders emerged with the original Meech Lake agreement unchanged. What broke the standoff was an agreement to seek reform -- or at least reapportionment -- for Canada's appointed Senate, which underrepresents the west. The ministers further committed themselves to discuss aboriginal self-government, minority-language rights and guarantees of sexual equality...
...great gain for Quebec," said Bourassa after the negotiations, "and a great gain for Canada." Not to mention a political necessity for Bourassa. The constitutional imbroglio revived the cause of Quebec separatism, which the Meech Lake accord had been intended to defuse. With nationalist sentiment growing, the premier could not show the slightest sign of buckling under pressure from his fellow premiers. Waiting for Bourassa to make a slip was Jacques Parizeau, leader of the opposition Parti Quebecois, the party that endorses the concept of Quebec nationhood. "Faced with what we consider wrong and profoundly humiliating," says Parizeau...
Even if the Meech Lake agreement wins unanimous approval, many Quebeckers feel that greater provincial control of such areas as communications and taxation is inevitable. Says Pierre Laurin, head of Quebec operations for Merrill Lynch Canada: "People here have realized that Quebec needs a new sort of arrangement...