Word: quebecers
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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...
...provincial premiers a week earlier. In the prairie province of Manitoba, Elijah Harper, a Cree Indian and member of the legislative assembly, repeatedly blocked debate on the same ratification issue. The clock was ticking: if either legislature fails to approve the agreement by June 23, a delicate compromise over Quebec's place in Canada could shatter, leading, in the direst of scenarios, to the country's breakup...
...drawn-out tussle has left Canadians rancorous and fatigued and much of the world puzzled. At issue is the eternal Canadian problem of a balance between the special role of Quebec, the only province with an overwhelming French-speaking majority in an officially bilingual country of 26.5 million, and regions that object to having other-than-equal status in the confederation...
Since 1982, Canada has been governed by a constitution that was never endorsed by Quebec, home to one-quarter of the country's population. Quebec felt that, among 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...
Other groups -- most notably Canada's 700,000 aboriginal and metis people -- insisted that they were equally deserving of special status. Said Ethel Blondin, a legislator from the Western Arctic and a Dene Indian: "There are 53 aboriginal languages and cultures we feel are equal to Quebec's -- no greater and no less...