| The following was extracted from the USENET news group clari.canada.gov.
It is copyrighted material and may not be redistributed outside of Digital.
(Note to moderator, Digital has permission to receive and use these news
groups internally)
Pieter
================================================================================
Path: pa.dec.com!decwrl!parc!lll-winken!looking!clarinews
From: clarinews@clarinet.com ((Morrissey/Standard Broadcast News))
Newsgroups: clari.canada.gov
Subject: <Language-NB> (OTTAWA) A constitutional amendment has been passed in
Keywords: canadian broadcast, state government, government
Message-ID: <Clanguage-nbUR706_3F2@clarinet.com>
Date: 2 Feb 93 00:38:00 GMT
References: <Clanguage-nbU2f_3F2@clarinet.com>
Lines: 21
Approved: clarinews@clarinet.com
X-Supersedes:<Clanguage-nbUR2f_3F2@clarinet.com>
Location: canada
ACategory: national
Slugword: Languag-NB
Priority: regular
ANPA: Wc: 206/184; Id: z5711; Sel: cnng; Adate: N/A-NA; Ver: 0/1
Codes: jngs.cn.
(OTTAWA) A constitutional amendment has been passed in the House of
Commons to give English and French communities in New Brunswick equal
status.
The amendment, which had been part of the Charlottetown Accord, has
already been approved by th New Brunswick Legislature. However,
procedural wrangling by two Bloc Quebecis MPs prevented it from being
passed in the Commons before Christmas.
But constitutional lawyr Deborah Coyne, who campaigned hard for the
``NO'' side in the referendum, says she plans to take the issue to court
in mid-February. She says the amendment effects all Canadians, NOT just
those in New Brunswick, because it's a ``constitutional'' amendment. She
says Canadians clearly voted against the Charlottetown accord and she
sys the government is pushing constitutional changes through the back
door. She says changes must be aproved by a majority of provinces, NOT
one province.
Prime Minister Mulroney says this is a ``stand-aone'' matter which
had been agreed upon previously, and says it was NOT related to the
harlottetown Accord. He insists it is NOT a model for future bilateral
agreements. He calls the amendmet ``social justice''.
|
| No, I think (hope) CoR has probably peaked. They are not a very
impressive group. The lanuage issue is very much alive in New Brunswick,
however. Not a "desperation move," but a bid to safeguard the equality
of services in the 2 languages from possible threat, and maybe a political
move to undermine CoR by getting the issue out of the realm of partisan
debate at the provincial level.
I'm from New Brunswick, but I'm not closely in touch with what's going
on in politics there, so my feel for the situation isn't as good as it
might be.
At the federal level, it seems to me that opposition to this would be a
no-win proposition for any of the parties; the pro-bilingualism
consensus among them holds.
-Stephen
|