Sovereignty by the back door? All the provinces complain about not receiving enough money from Ottawa, but sometimes it's hard to tell whether Quebec's cry for more is in response to its special needs or simply political maneuvering. (National Unity--Special Status).

For many Canadians, Quebec already has sovereignty within Canada. The province operates its own pension plan, labour market training, and has its own legal and justice system. According to a column in the Financial Post by Diane Francis, Quebec runs its immigration department at a huge profit. "La Belle Province," she writes "receives less than 20% of immigrants to Canada but has been handed more than 40% of the immigration budget dollars."

And, she points out, the province's pension plan is allowed to invest "in favoured francophone businesses or is used ... to co-opt business to stay or expand in Quebec."

Others agree that subsidies compensate businesses for the unattractive business climate "created by the ... policies of the provincial government," and that the money comes from taxpayers in other provinces through federal transfer payments.

The Atlantic Institute for Market Studies has a study to back up these claims of preferential treatment. In 1998, says the Institute, the Quebec government gave away an incredible $3.18 billion to businesses, more than the $2.2 billion given by the nine other provincial governments combined. Combined federal and provincial business subsidies per private-sector employee in Quebec are 75% higher than the Canadian average.

When it comes to arts, sports, and cultural sponsorship, Quebec already is given the lion's share of federal money (84% for 25% of the country's population). Aside from scandals surrounding the percentages that seem to have been skimmed and scammed from those federal handouts, many people believe that such disproportionate sponsoring hurts national unity. Some critics think federalism's true failing is that "ill-thought-out transfer programs from Ottawa obscure from Quebeckers the price of their province's own policies."

Vancouver's mayor was speaking for many others when he said he feels Ottawa is feeding national disunity by pouring a huge chunk of its sponsorship money into Quebec and leaving other regions far behind. In the 2000-2001 fiscal year, Public Works Canada spent $19.2 million on cultural and sporting events in Quebec (84% of total federal sponsorship money). A combined $3.8 million (16% of the total) was handed to the Atlantic provinces, Ontario, and the West combined. Another $3 million went to fund national events that occur in more than one province.

Public Works sponsored 198 events in Quebec, compared to 23 in the East, 25 in Ontario, and 25 in the West: plus 20 national events.

Now, Quebec's Premier Bernard Landry is talking about holding a referendum on seeking more federal tax dollars. Mr. Landry claims that Quebec is short-changed to the tune of $2.5 billion a year by Ottawa. It's a clever strategy for Quebec. Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Stephane Dion speaks for Ottawa and says the feds could never accept the results of such a provincial vote on federal matters. "The federal government would be forced," he says, "to accept a referendum on any subject. You can't govern like that." That's when Bernard Landry pounces and says that such a refusal to listen to the voices of Quebeckers only boosts the popularity of independence.

By February 2002, Quebec and Ottawa were locking horns over the federal government's decision to slash $800 million from equalization payments, a move the province said could plunge it into debt. (The controversy started when Statistics Canada changed the way it calculates a province's wealth, which determines how much the poorer provinces receive in equalization payments. The new method substantially increases the value of houses in Quebec, boosting the province's overall wealth and reducing transfer payments from Ottawa. The method of calculating the province's share of the federal sales tax was also changed.)

The language issue has provoked a fair bit of anger among Canadians over the years. The Official Languages Act of 1969 made French and English the two official languages of Canada. By the Act, the federal government has to provide services in both French and English. The equal status of the two languages was later enshrined in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms (1982).

To people living in a community where there are no French speakers it often seems a bit silly to require the local Post Office and RCMP detachment to offer service in French. In fact, some people see this as more than silly and turn downright ugly over the issue. The inevitable complaints about French on the Corn Flakes boxes leads to belly-aching about Quebec being Riven "special status."

Nevertheless, dissatisfied francophone Quebeckers, as a minority in Canada, feel they "are too often subject to the whim of the English-language majority ... that when push comes to shove the majority will decide in its own interests without taking into account the sometimes divergent interests of the minority." That's how Armand de Mestral, professor at the Institute of Comparative Law at McGill University and David Cameron, professor of political science at the University of Toronto put it in an article in The Globe and Mail in November 1995. The authors believe that Canadians have trouble accepting difference, thinking that all provinces are equal and should be treated in exactly the same way. They quote former Newfoundland Premier Clyde Wells' assertion that any special status for others would diminish his civil rights. Then they turn to a great thinker from the past--Aristotle. He believed "that equality is achieved by treating like situations in the same manner. But he also taught that if you treat unlike situations in the same manner, the result is inequality. In refusing to accept, at least for certain constitutional purposes, that Quebec is a province unlike all the others, many Canadians are in fact promoting inequality. Hence, the deep feeling in francophone Quebec that their differences are denied and they must leave Canada."

SUGGESTED ACTIVITIES:

1. Armand de Mestral and David Cameron wrote that if recognizing Quebec's uniqueness leads to somewhat different arrangements in response to somewhat different needs, so be it. "Whatever its dangers, they are surely, not as serious as separation." Discuss.

2. Sovereignists in Quebec claim they have a right to special status as one of two founding nations of Canada. But, Aboriginal people in Canada can argue that if anyone founded Canada it was The First Nations who were later joined by the English and the French. If Quebec deserves the special status its people claim for themselves, then the First Nations deserve such status as well. Draw up a list of similarities and differences between the French and the Native struggle to hold on to their language and culture.

FACT FILE

The first language law in Quebec was the Lavergne Law, passed in 1910, which required that tickets for buses, trains, and trams be printed in both French and English.

FACT FILE

The federal sponsorship program is seen as a key instrument in the national-unity fight because it allows the Canadian flag to be flown throughout Quebec, reminding Quebeckers of the value of the federal government in their daily lives.

FACT FILE

During the 414 months between April 1968 and October 2002, Canada has been governed by prime ministers from Quebec for all but 15 months.

Websites

Alliance Quebec--http://www.aq.qc.ca

The Canada Page--http://www.thecanadapage.org/Sep2.htm

RELATED ARTICLE: Political insults.

Quebec's Parti Quebecois Premier Bernard Landry has been quoted as saying that "Quebec wants dialogue with national political entities, and not equality--with all due respect--with Saskatchewan and Manitoba. They are simple provinces of Canada and are happy, without national aspirations." (This is the same person who has referred to the Canadian flag as "bits of red rag.")

But, former Manitoba Premier Howard Pawley warned Canadians to be careful not to fall into a PQ trap. By overreacting to Mr. Landry by returning his insults with interest Canadians might "create the climate for a successful referendum," even though most Quebeckers don't seem to want one.

RELATED ARTICLE: A turn of phrase.

The French in Quebec have been struggling to preserve their language and culture since France was defeated by the British in 1759 at the Plains of Abraham in Quebec City. At the core of every culture is its language. Once a language is gone, the whole culture it's based upon is probably not far behind. So, it's not surprising that Quebeckers have fought long and hard for their French language rights.

In 1977, the Quebec government passed Bill 101, the French Language Charter, which spells out the fundamental linguistic rights of all Quebeckers. By the Charter, French is the only official language of Quebec. Bill 101 (even though it is an Act of government everyone still refers to it as Bill 101) requires companies with more than 50 workers to use French as the common language of communication. Education in French became compulsory for immigrants, even those from other Canadian provinces. Signs on businesses and advertising had to be in French only. (This was later changed to allow some English in commercial signs, as long as the English lettering is half the size of the French.) New rules were added to the Charter in 1996 aimed at making French the only language of public administration. All this has raised the hackles of non-francophones in Quebec, but the francophones believe that if they don't defend their language, English will dominate in the end.

And, perhaps they're winning their battle: 81.9% of Quebeckers still speak French at home. It's a different story for francophone families living outside Quebec, where about four out of ten do not speak French at home. For the second generation of francophone families in English Canada the numbers are even lower: in Manitoba, only in a third of families where the mother tongue is French do all the children speak it. In Southern Ontario, the figure drops to 25%.

The latest development comes from a commission on the status of French in Quebec, which concluded in August 2001 that the best way to protect the French language in Quebec is to make French the official language of citizenship in the province. Gerald Larose, chief of the Estates General on the Situation and the Future of the French Language in Quebec suggested that, "An official citizenship has the immense advantage of eliminating all confusion in messages and to help all those who want to join us in forming a better idea of what Quebec is." But the idea of creating a Quebec citizenship was not expected to sit well with Quebec's anglophones. Neither was the suggestion that rather than having designated bilingual hospitals and government-prescribed plans to ensure that health services are available in English, patients should rely on the goodwill of doctors and nurses.

However, overhauling Quebec's language police, whose job it is to enforce the province's language laws, and avoiding old English-French mistrust were among the key recommendations in the report. And, it was left to the province's new premier, Bernard Landry, to decide how to deal with the commission's findings.