Quebec premier speaks out against province's ethnics (09/13/98)

Quebec premier speaks out against province's ethnics

by Andrij Kudla Wynnyckyj
Toronto Press Bureau

TORONTO - Québec's Deputy Premier Bernard Landry has weighed in with another thrust at his province's non-French population.

As widely reported in the Canadian media, in a broadcast on Montréal's radio station CKAC, on August 31, Mr. Landry said if a majority of more than 50 percent were required in a future referendum on whether Québec should separate from Canada and form an independent state, this would hand the province's non-French community a veto.

"Everyone knows well that if we put the bar too high it's like giving a right of veto to our compatriots, brothers and sisters from the cultural communities [ethnic minorities, such as English, Greek, Italian, Jewish and Ukrainian], on our national project. That can't be done," Mr. Landry said.

Reached at his law office in Montréal on September 3, Evhen Czolij, national vice-president of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress and president of the local UCC branch, said: "I'm highly disappointed that the deputy premier made a statement in which he divides Québec society along ethnic lines."

"I believe and will continue to believe that each member of society has equal rights," Mr. Czolij added, "and that each vote has equal weight. I can't agree with anyone who divides society into any categories, anywhere in the world."

Reached at his law office in Winnipeg, UCC President Oleh Romaniw said he had no comment about Mr. Landry's remarks.

Immanuel Dick, president of the Canadian Ethnocultural Council, told The Weekly on September 8 that he found the entire debate over referendum numbers "very disheartening."

"I wouldn't have thought that Canada consists of provinces that are divided along ethnic and cultural lines," Mr. Dick continued. "Does this mean that Quebec is the only entity in Canada that is characterized by an ethnic majority? [It appears that] Québec is not a province of Québeckers, but of some people who immigrated first and others who migrated there according to some ethnic definition," the CEC president added.

"If [Québec] ever does become independent with its current leadership as it is," Mr. Dick said, "we have been given a very clear indication of how respectful they would be to the rights of visible and other minorities."

The CEC president asked pointedly: "If a senior official such as Mr. Landry can make such a remark, calling into question the basic rights of individuals to vote, then what can we expect in term of his government's attitudes to other human and civil rights?"

In the past two referenda, in 1980 and 1995, people of non-French background in Québec, who constitute about 16 percent of its population, have been virtually unanimous in voting "no" to any move towards separation.

The current debate over numbers flared recently after the country's Supreme Court decided on August 20 that the Canadian government would be enjoined to negotiate Québec's separation if "a clear majority" of the population voted in favor. The issue of what constitutes a "clear majority" has thus become a matter of contention.

Some Canadian federalists have recently suggested that a two-thirds (66.7 percent) majority should be required to provide a mandate for independence.

According to calculations that appeared in the Toronto-based Globe and Mail daily's September 1 edition, if Québec's non-French maintained their present demographic standing in the province, this would mean that citizens of French background would have to vote with a majority of 80.5 percent to give its politicians a mandate to pursue total political emancipation. If a margin of 60 percent were set as the benchmark, just over 73 percent of Québec's French would have to back the move.

After losing the October 1995 referendum by a slim margin (51 percent of the population voted "No"), both Québec's current deputy premier and then Premier Jacques Parizeau vented their bitterness on "ethnics." Mr. Parizeau blamed the loss on "money and ethnics" at a public gathering of the party faithful, while Mr. Landry accosted a hotel cleaning woman of Latin American background and began shouting remonstrations at her, having assumed that she had voted against Québec's independence.

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