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The separatist leaders are now in disarray. Last week's election results in Quebec were the culmination of a bad year for separatism. And yesterday, a personal blow landed on Lucien Bouchard: The editor of the closest thing to a separatist house organ, Michel Venne of Le Devoir, questioned the Premier's commitment to the sacred cause. "If Mr. Bouchard no longer believes in sovereignty, let him say so. . . . Let others take up the cause. As long as he does not commit his government to a process [preparing for sovereignty], no one will believe any more in his incantations. His calls to mobilize will remain a dead letter. And his speeches will only bore us." On Monday, the government's deputy leader in the National Assembly, André Boulerice, went public with a threat to quit the Parti Québécois and sit as an independent if the government did not concentrate on promoting secession. He complained that too much political capital is consumed in reforms, such as cutbacks to funding for health services and the forced amalgamation of municipalities in Montreal, Quebec City and elsewhere. "Personally, I don't want to hear another word about them. I want to hear people talking about sovereignty. I want to go out and talk about sovereignty." On the weekend, dozens of hard-line separatists met in Trois-Rivières for the founding convention of an extra-parliamentary movement, the Rassemblement pour l'Indépendance du Québec. Most were disenchanted Péquistes who feel the PQ has been seduced by power and has downgraded the pursuit of independence. The RIQ claims not to oppose the PQ, but to help by whipping up public support for secession. But it proposes dropping the PQ's commitment to offering a partnership with Canada in the aftermath of secession. This choice of full independence embarrasses the PQ, whose leaders -- notably Mr. Bouchard -- believe that only sovereignty accompanied by a partnership offer can ever be saleable. True believers are convinced that secession can be won by talking it up constantly, by harnessing the government's powers to its promotion, and by funding committed non-governmental groups. But that assumption is naive, and an attempt to implement it could backfire. Tomorrow, the National Assembly will vote to adopt Bill 99, which Mr. Bouchard announced with such apocalyptic gravity just before last Christmas as the counter to the federal Clarity Act on secession. The vote will come as one huge anti-climax. The Premier had commandeered the TV networks to tell Quebeckers that he would take every means to counter the federal bill, an unprecedented threat, which committed the federal government not to negotiate secession unless the referendum question was clear, the answer was clear, and the rights of all Canadians were protected in the negotiated settlement. The PQ government spent a fortune in ads trying to arouse public outrage against the federal bill. The campaign failed, the public remained unperturbed. A recent poll even showed that a majority of Quebeckers favour the Clarity Act. Bill 99 claims the right to secede unilaterally, all territory intact, on the sole strength of a majority vote in a referendum entirely set by Quebec. The bill repudiates the advisory opinion of the Supreme Court of Canada that found that there is no right to secede, that secession requires an amendment to the Constitution, that any secession settlement must protect the rule of law, the principle of federalism and the rights of minorities. So how can Quebec separatism be killed once and for all as a credible threat? By taking three steps: Ottawa must challenge in court the pretensions of Bill 99, which summarizes all the myths and illusions propagated by secessionists for the past 40 years. Ottawa can do this directly, or by funding private interests, such as lawyer Guy Bertrand, to launch a legal attack. Ottawa must declare that it will enforce the decision of the Supreme Court on secession, and uphold the Constitution. That means not only that it will refuse to negotiate secession unless the conditions spelled out in the Clarity Act are fulfilled; but, most important, that it will resist any attempt to secede unilaterally and unconstitutionally, in accordance with its solemn duty. The federal government must declare firmly, unequivocally, that it is the trustee, not the owner, of native lands in Quebec, that these lands will never be handed over to Quebec as part of a secessionist agreement unless the First Nations themselves choose to secede from Canada. They never will.
If Jean Chrétien carries out these measures, he will deserve before posterity a monument as a saviour of his country.
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