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CPC OPPOSES LIBERAL "CLARITY" LEGISLATION
(This article is from the Jan. 1-15/2000 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, Canada, V5L 3J1.)
BY INTRODUCING ITS SO-CALLED "clarity" legislation, the Chrétien government is again using its federal authority to run roughshod over the rights of the people of Quebec, and to deny their national right of self-determination, the Communist Party has declared.
In the event of any future referendum on sovereignty, the proposed act would give the House of Commons the final right to determine whether or not a "clear question" had been asked, and a "clear majority" achieved, before agreeing to negotiate Quebec's secession from Canada. It also stipulates that "any such negotiations must address the division of assets and liabilities, any changes to the borders of the province, the rights, interests and territorial claims of the Aboriginal Peoples of Canada, and the protection of minority rights."
"This is a crude attempt - just like its earlier use of the Supreme Court - to resort to legal and administrative means to bully the people of Quebec into submission and to snuff out the pro-independence movement once and for all," CPC leader Miguel Figueroa said.
"But this aggressive and confrontational tactic, a continuation of the Liberals' Plan B get-tough approach, is doomed to backfire. It will only stir up indignation in Quebec, feed the fires of both narrow nationalism in Quebec and big-nation chauvinism in the rest of the country, and deepen the long-festering crisis of Confederation.
"This move by the Chrétien government is not so surprising, given its determination to maintain the current constitutional status quo by all possible means. Nor is it surprising that Preston Manning and his chauvinist Reform Party have jumped on this bandwagon, even speculating about carving up Quebec as the partitionists are demanding," Figueroa said.
"On the other hand, the stand taken by NDP premiers Roy Romanow and Gary Doer, and the federal NDP caucus, who have also come out in support of this provocation, is deplorable. This violation of the official policy of the NDP on the Quebec national question is one more indication of the growing trend towards a pro-corporate and right-wing agenda within that party.
"Meanwhile, Premier Lucien Bouchard must be quite happy. He is betting that this new hard line promoted by Ottawa will create the `winning conditions' for a future referendum bid. The Parti Quebecois has already launched a mass media advertising campaign denouncing Ottawa's irreconcilable attitude.
"These developments open the door for greater divisions over the Quebec national question and represent a major setback for democracy in Canada," Figueroa noted. "But they also create an important opportunity for the labour movement and all other progressive forces in the country to stand up, voice their strong disapproval of Ottawa's decision, and take the lead in the fight for a democratic and correct solution."
"Over many years, labour in English Canada as well as other organizations like NAC have developed an independent, democratic policy towards the Quebec national question," said André Parizeau, the newly elected president of the Parti communiste du Québec.
"This is the time for labour and other progressive forces to unite across the country in opposition to the way major political parties have been handling this issue," he continued. "This is the time to say `enough is enough' and to reaffirm the need for a democratic solution to the Quebec national question as well as to all other national questions in this country.
"Representatives from these organizations should come to Quebec, convene the mass media and explain where they stand and why they disagree with the legislation. This is a unique opportunity, a concrete way to implement the call for more independent political action on the part of labour and other democratic forces," he added.
Since the `clarity' legislation was made public, Quebec's main labour organizations have denounced the move, promising to mobilize forces in an effort to defeat the Bill when debates in the House of Commons resume in February.
At the same time, Quebec labour leaders are being warned by their affiliates not to get too close to the PQ in this fight. During a Dec. 10 meeting of the leading body of the CNTU, the president of the 100,000-strong Federation of Health Care Unions (FSSS), Louis Roy, declared that the fight on the national question needs to be connected to the battle for social change. He concluded by urging that the executive of the CNTU keep its distance from the PQ. Not one delegate in that meeting tried to nuance or contradict his conclusion.
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