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1994-05-02
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<text>
<title>
Ontario Prime Minister On Quebec Sovereignty
</title>
<article>
<hdr>
Foreign Broadcast Information Service, March 11, 1992
Canada: Ontario Prime Minister on Quebec Sovereignty
</hdr>
<body>
<p>[Article by Carol Beaulieu on her Bob Rae interview conducted
with Jean Francois Lisee: "Bob Rae: An Ally of Quebec? Not
Sure!" Montreal L'ACTUALITE in French Feb 92 p 50]
</p>
<p> [Text] The Ontario prime minster believes in the independent
society, but only as a symbol, and he refuses to guarantee the
borders of a sovereign Quebec.
</p>
<p> Ontario Prime Minister Bob Rae declared in well spoken
French that the right of the Quebecois to self-determination "is
not absolute."
</p>
<p> A francophile, indeed, a defender of the Lake Meech
agreement, and the one, among all the prime ministers, who knows
and understands Quebec the best, Bob Rae is often perceived as
"its best ally." But, in an exclusive interview given to
L'ACTUALITE, this support for the traditional demands of Quebec
appears on several points to amount to very little.
</p>
<p> Have Quebecois the right to seek independence? Yes, he
answered after a long silence. But if they do, "negotiations
with Canada will be very, very difficult, in particular on the
issue of the rights of people who, in Quebec, do not want
independence and who want to keep a permanent or important tie
with the rest of Canada, autochthons in particular."
</p>
<p> Would Quebecois have the right to have their present border
respected? The Ontario prime minister refused to answer. "It is
a speculative debate. In any case I do not want to debate the
conditions of Canada's dismantling." Rae also struck a serious
blow against the Quebecois federalists for whom the
"independent society" represented--in the Meech agreement--the guarantee that the Quebecois would win a larger control of
their affairs. According to the prime minster, the independent
society was never more than a "political statement." He
maintained that "it brought no specific power."
</p>
<p> A supporter, from the very beginning, of the independent
society, who is eager to see Quebec remain within the
federation, Rae admitted that he had never been able to see how
this concept could give Quebec an extra margin of maneuver. For
him, it involves a simple sociological recognition. He said that
those who believe that the clause would make it possible for
Quebec to obtain new powers "did not read it properly."
</p>
<p> The Ontario prime minister admitted that a Quebec government
could have tried to use the independent society clause before
the Supreme Court to extend its powers, for example in the
matter of financial institutions, this having already been
mentioned by Robert Bourassa before the National Assembly. He
said: "It is not up to me to predict whether the Supreme Court
will accept such an argument. But I do not know if it is
something I, myself, will accept, for the Constitution and the
Bank Act are rather clear on the subject of the division of
powers."
</p>
<p> According to the Ontario prime minister, the definition of
the independent society, as it appears in the recent federal
proposals, is no more restrictive that those formulated by the
Lake Meech agreement. Yet, in a confidential report dated 8
October 1991, even the Ottawa experts declared having knowingly
weakened the concept. Page three of that report reads: "Another
difference with Meech is that the federal proposal tries to
define and limit the scope of the independent society." Another
passage points out that it involves "recognizing the
distinguishing characteristic of Quebec without modifying
directly any of the dispositions of the Charter or of the
Constitution pertaining to rights and powers."
</p>
<p> How then would such a proposal make it possible for Quebec
to feel more at ease, at least until the next decade? Rae took
a long time to answer, saying: "We are ready to discuss once
again the division of powers." But questioned on the will of
Quebec to repatriate all the powers pertaining to unemployment
insurance and the training of the labor force, Rae said that he
saw no reasons that would justify Quebec not yielding to
national standards.
</p>
<p> He said: "We too see the double jurisdiction as being
ineffective. But it would be a financial disaster if
Newfoundland, for example, were given the ability to repatriate
unemployment insurance. We must remember that it is a program
which gives more money to the people who need it the most."
</p>
<p> When told that time was pressing, Rae shrugged his shoulder.
The holding of the referendum in 1992, called for by Law 150,
leaves him skeptical. He said: "I do not know if there will be
a referendum. Neither do you."
</p>
<p> When told that it was virtually certain that few Quebecois
would be satisfied should Robert Bourassa be dissatisfied with
the final federal proposals scheduled for April, he declared in
an annoyed tone of voice: "I do not know what is Bourassa's
`bottom line.' If you know it, you know something he did not
tell me."
</p>
</body>
</article>
</text>