Trudeau left Canada 'a ticking time bomb'

BY JOE CLARK
Mr. Clark is Secretary of State for External Affairs.
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OTTAWA

ON THE EVE of the 1980 Quebec referendum at the Paul Sauvé Arena, former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau made solemn promises to the people of Quebec to renew federalism if the independence option was rejected. He did that in the name of nine provincial premiers, Edward Broadbent, then leader of the New Democratic Party, and myself, then leader of the Progressive Conservatives.

Seven years later, Mr. Broadbent and I supported the Meech Lake accord concluded by Prime Minister Brian Mulroney because it fulfilled these promises. Over the past three years, Canadians have been treated to the spectacle of Mr. Trudeau popping sporadically out of retirement to try to sabotage the Meech Lake accord. It is worth wondering why he is doing that. Is it because the elements of the accord are offensive to him? Or is his motive instead that he wants no one to succeed where he failed?

That is a brutal question, but it deserves to be asked, because the reforms Mr. Trudeau condemns today are reforms he himself proposed at various times. Let me list them.

• Distinct society, linguistic duality. At the 1980 constitutional conference, Mr. Trudeau agreed to recognize the "distinct French-speaking majority" in a preamble to the constitution that would also refer to Canada's multicultural and aboriginal heritage.

  He later entrenched, not in a preamble but in the body of the constitution, the latter two aspects of the Canadian identity. At the same time, he subjected interpretation of the individual rights in the charter to these collective characteristics. Yet he now refuses to give equivalent recognition to our linguistic duality and to the distinctiveness Quebec brings to Canada.

  Lest one still be tempted in spite of this record to believe he is operating on principle--namely, a defence of individual as against the collective aspect of rights--let us not forget that Mr. Trudeau also entrenched the notwithstanding clause, which permits legislatures to override everything from freedom of religion to the right not to be discriminated against on the basis of race, national or ethnic origin, color, religion, age or mental or physical disability.

  While he is now saying someone made him do it, he was not a reluctant bridesmaid, as revealed by the secret undertaking he made in a letter sent to Cardinal Carter* on Dec. 21, 1981: "Should a court decide at some future date that sections 7 (the right of women to security of the person) or 15 (equality rights) establish a right to abortion on demand, Parliament will continue to legislate on the matter by overriding the court's decision and specific charter right."

• The spending power. In both 1969 and 1979, Mr. Trudeau offered to allow provinces to veto Parliament's authority to launch programs in areas of provincial jurisdiction. This veto, and the right to opt out, went far beyond the shared-costs programs that are covered by the Meech Lake accord which, far from weakening the federal Government, confirms for the first time the constitutional basis of Parliament's spending power.

MR. TRUDEAU's offer also went beyond Meech Lake to include payments to institutions, such as universities, and to individuals, including tax credits. Moreover, his proposal included no requirement for opted-out provinces to introduce a compatible program that would meet national objectives for compensation to be paid.

• The amending formula. On March 31, 1976, Mr. Trudeau wrote to the premiers to propose patriation of the constitution. To secure their support, he offered to live with unanimity for all major constitutional amendments, and not simply those affecting the national institutions, which the Meech Lake accord added to the five items under the 1982 constitution already requiring unanimous consent.

• Court and Senate appointments. Mr. Trudeau was willing, prior to the 1980 constitutional conference, to support a proposal requiring provincial consent of federal nominations to the Supreme Court of Canada. In Bill C-60 he was prepared to turn over to the provinces the right to appoint one-half the members of the Senate (and not just suggest names to the federal government as in the accord).

• Immigration. Meech Lake constitutionalizes the Cullen-Couture agreement negotiated by the Mr. Trudeau government.

  The conclusion is inescapable--in opposing Meech Lake today, Pierre Trudeau is rejecting what he himself proposed. His quarrel is not with the elements of Meech Lake, but rather with the fact that someone else succeeded where he failed.

  Near the end of the referendum campaign, which had been marked by rising support for the "Yes" side, Mr. Trudeau made solemn promises on behalf of all Canadians--including explicitly myself--that a "No" vote was not an endorsement of the status quo, but of renewed federalism. At the Paul Sauvé arena, on May 16, 1980, he said:

  "If the answer to the referendum question is "no" we have all said that this 'no' will be interpreted as a mandate to change the constitution, to renew federalism.

  "I am not the only person saying this. Nor is Mr. Clark. Nor is Mr. Broadbent. It is not only the nine premiers of the other provinces saying this. It is also the 75 MPs elected by Quebeckers to represent them in Ottawa who are saying that a 'no' means change.

  And because I spoke to these MPs this morning, I know that I can make a most solemn commitment that following a 'no' vote, we will immediately take action to renew the constitution and we will not stop until we have done that.

  "And I make a solemn declaration to all Canadians in the other provinces, we, the Quebec MPs are laying ourselves on the line, because we are telling Quebeckers we will not agree to your interpreting a 'no' vote as an indication that everything is fine and can remain as it was before.

  "We want change and we are willing to lay our seats in the House on the line to have change."

THAT WAS the promise he made--and broke. It was a pivotal decision, a promise that moved many Quebeckers to reject separatism so they could "renew federalism."

Ins[t]ead of that renewal, the Constitutional Accord of 1982 left Quebec out. Meech Lake would bring Quebec back into the Canadian constitutional family, and help keep Canada's promise to renew federalism. Yet the man who gave the commitment is trying to abort the process he promised at the Paul Sauvé arena.

On March 30, 1988, Mr. Trudeau appeared in the Senate to re-state his opposition to the Meech Lake accord, after it had been endorsed by the leaders of the three national parties and by provincial premiers representing four political parties. When asked about the serious consequences that would attend failure of the accord, he replied: "I think we have to realize that Canada is not immortal' that if it is going to go, let it go with a bang rather than a whimper."

Out of this reckless approach to governance came the constitutional difficulties that beset Canada in the early 1980s.

The constitutional conference that was supposed to have cemented the reconciliation of Quebec within Canada, in the wake of the referendum, instead ended up isolating Quebec. What was for the government of Canada and nine provincial governments a freely accepted constitutional renewal became, for Quebec, an imposed solution that failed to reflect its distinctive needs.

In retrospect, I can only conclude that Mr. Trudeau set about deliberately to produce that result: it was going to be his way or the highway.

In January, 1977, only months after the election a pro-independence Quebec government laid bare his prediction that separatism wad dead, Mr. Trudeau set out before the Quebec Chamber of Commerce a constitutional position that was marked by openness and flexibility:

"After 109 years, perhaps the time has come to rewrite the Canadian constitution...I balk at no challenge and I am prepared to be very flexible in this area. As for the constitution, I have only one prerequisite: respect for the rights of men and women, respect for human rights and, probably, respect for the collective aspect of these human rights. I am thinking here of language and of the rights of the regions." (Unofficial translation).

MR. TRUDEAU's position became even more flexible as the date of the referendum approached: scarcely four months prior to the vote, Mr. Ryan issued his Beige Paper outlining the Quebec Liberal Party's proposals for renewed federalism--proposals that went far beyond the minimal conditions contained in the Meech Lake accord. Based on the premise that "Quebec society possesses all the attributes of a distinct national community," the proposals were described by The Globe and Mail as follows:

"...a federation much decentralized from the Confederation we now know. Federal power to overstep the bounds of provincial jurisdiction would be curtailed. The provinces would take control over social security--a long-standing Quebec goal. Provincial ownership, control and management of resources, energy included, would be confirmed. The Senate would become a federal council of provincial delegations headed by the premiers. Language rights, to be based primarily in the provinces, would be broadened and extended. What Mr. Ryan proposes is not mere tinkering. It is basic change."

Mr. Trudeau welcomed the Beige Paper document as a "very serious basis for discussion." Jean Chrétien saw it as a "judicious and realistic document putting forward sound proposals," and Jeanne Sauvé found it "consistent with the thinking of the leader of the federal Liberal Party, Mr. Trudeau".

Within days of the victory of the "no" side, however, Mr. Trudeau chose immediately to send Mr. Chrétien to institute constitutional negotiations with the premiers--including René Lévesque. He did not wait to give Mr. Ryan the chance to win an election and present the proposals of a federalist Quebec government. Perhaps he saw strategic advantage in negotiating with a separatist rather than a federalist--the result was confrontation and ultimately the exclusion of Quebec from the constitution.

Only Mr. Trudeau would have the gall to boast that he had left Canada with a constitution that was so perfect that "the federation was set to last a thousand years," as he put it in May, 1987. In actual fact, he had left Canada with a ticking time bomb that threatened its very existence.

The Meech Lake accord, even with its imperfections, repairs the damage Mr. Trudeau did the country. It incorporates the principles he proposed himself. It honors the promise he made, on behalf of us all, to Quebeckers in the referendum. It restores the spirit of co-operative federalism, which is the way our country works together.

Is is not a bang, nor a whimper, but a means of ensuring that we build and keep this remarkable country.

(article accompanied by photograph of Pierre Elliott Trudeau, captioned:

(text of March 20, 1990 Globe and Mail article)

THIS IS A TERM OF REFERENCE ACQUIRED FROM ONE OF THE VANCOUVER PUBLIC LIBRARY'S CLIPPINGS FILES ON PIERRE E. TRUDEAU.

-TO PUT INTO PERSPECTIVE THE MEECH LAKE ACCORD AND WHAT YOU FIND IF YOU TAKE A BRIEF SIDESTEP HERE...AS WELL AS WHY I SIGNED THE GUESTBOOK OF THIS AWARD-WINNING WEBSITE MYSELF--AND THE WAY I SIGNED IT--THE REFERENDUM ON THIS ACCORD TIED UP CANADA FOR MONTHS IN 1992. IT WAS A "NON-BINDING...MEASURE OF POPULAR SUPPORT" ON CERTAIN SELECTIVE ISSUES, AND THE ACCORD HAD "MORE THAN 40 CLAUSES" REQUIRING ADDITIONAL NEGOTIATIONS.
IT WAS BEING PORTRAYED AS (DARE I SAY IT?) THE LAST BEST HOPE TO KEEP CANADA TOGETHER.
SO, ASTUTE PEOPLE THAT THEY ARE, THE PEOPLE OF CANADA REJECTED IT. ALMOST 70% OF BRITISH COLUMBIA, WHERE I LIVED THEN, LIVE NOW, AND PLAN TO CONTINUE TO LIVE FOR THE FORESEEABLE FUTURE, REJECTED IT.

*-GERALD EMMETT CARDINAL CARTER WAS THE ARCHBISHOP OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC ARCHDIOCESE OF TORONTO WHEN I FIRST WROTE JIMMY CARTER IN 1977.

I LOOK FORWARD TO SEEING WHAT EACH WILL SAY ABOUT THOSE COMMUNICATIONS...

DON'T THINK THE WISDOM OF THOMAS JEFFERSON IS PASSÉ YET IN WHAT YOU ARE ENTITLED TO FROM YOUR GOVERNMENT? LET YOUR VOICE BE HEARD: TAKE A BRIEF SIDESTEP HERE TO SIGN MY GUESTBOOK.