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Conference kaosws::canada

Title:True North Strong & Free
Notice:Introduction in Note 535, For Sale/Wanted in 524
Moderator:POLAR::RICHARDSON
Created:Fri Jun 19 1987
Last Modified:Fri Jun 06 1997
Last Successful Update:Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:1040
Total number of notes:13668

656.0. "A Bit of Charlottetown (New Brunswick)" by VAOU09::BOTMAN (Pieter Botman - Western Canada DIS) Tue Feb 02 1993 14:42

    Yesterday the Canadian House of Commons passed a piece of legislation
    which was labelled "a part of the Charlottetown accord".  There were
    only a handful of nay votes cast (under five I would guess).  I am
    basing the following only on radio reports, not detailed newspaper
    accounts, so I hope someone will add to this.
    
    The substance of the legislation concerns New Brunswick's minority
    community.  This legislation enshrines the rights of both communities
    (majority and minority) to their own services, schools, etc.  Further
    it establishes the responsibility of the government of Nwe Brunswick to
    promote and protect both languages (or language groups, don't know the
    wording).
    
    
    Pieter
    
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656.1Story (from clarinet)VAOU09::BOTMANPieter Botman - Western Canada DISWed Feb 03 1993 00:5551
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Pieter

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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>
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Approved: clarinews@clarinet.com
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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''. 

656.2commentsKAOFS::S_BURRIDGEThu Feb 04 1993 18:2525
656.3Fear of CORE / minority rights erosion?VAOU09::BOTMANPieter Botman - Western Canada DISFri Feb 05 1993 15:149
    re .2
    
    Stephen,  are you suggesting that this is a desperation move by the
    feds (in concert with the New Brunswick Liberals of Frank McKenna)
    to entrench minority rights before the CORE party sweeps in and
    erodes them?
    
    Pieter
    
656.4KAOFS::S_BURRIDGEFri Feb 05 1993 16:2816
    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