The perverse effects of 'separatist blackmail'

By Naureen Shameem, Varsity Staff
Media Credit: Lisa Cavion, Varsity Staff
http://www.collegepublisher.com/thevarsity/main.cfm?include=detail&storyid=30683

Canadian politics must be freed of the constant threat of 'separatist blackmail' if our united nation is to prosper in the new millennium, said Intergovernmental Affairs minister Stephane Dion this Wednesday, in an address at University of Toronto's Law School.

Speaking in the wake of recent separatist turmoil in Alberta, and renewed anxieties upon the sovereigntist threat in Quebec as a result of the likely coronation of hard-liner Bernard Landry as premier, Dion decried the tactics of appeasement used historically in dealings with our provincial neighbour to the east.

Intergovernmental relations do not profit from the transfer of powers to Quebec, theoretically in exchange for the reduction of separatist rhetoric, said Dion, attacking the premise upon which reform is demanded.

"The separatists do not want piecemeal powers; they want a new country. Quebec's pro-independence leaders made no bones about thisäthey made it clear that every concession in the form of transfers of powers would be welcomed as one more step toward independence," said Dion, who met with the University of Toronto Liberals later that day.

While some in the audience viewed Dion's designation of contemporary Quebec policies as 'blackmail' to be needlessly antagonistic, he maintained his criticism of such 'booty politics' as fundamentally detrimental to Canada.

"Separatist blackmail involves a series of perverse effectsäit implies a logic of concessions in which citizens' interests are lost from view. It trivializes secession and the rupture it represents," stated Dion.

Such relations aggravate regional jealousies as well, he added, pointing to Western alienation, lack of support for the federal government, and independence movements as a case in point.

However, he supported the notion of federal solidarity as a means to solve Canadian issues around unity. Senate reform incorporating regional interests, a hot button topic in the West, was listed as a possibility.

"In speaking out for the principle of solidarity, I am in no way suggesting to renounce any reform of the Constitution. Of course the Constitution is not perfect. I'm not saying that our Senate is perfect, or that an interpretative clause recognizing the unique nature of Quebec would be of no use," said Dion.

He continued to reiterate his position that Canadians as a whole must support the principle of solidarity. But he alluded to attitudes that counter his own.

"Some of our fellow citizens do not support the principle of Canadian solidarity because they no longer want to be Canadian. [You] don't need to scratch too deeply below the surface to find that despite a certain rhetoric, their desire for break-up does not arise because Canada might be too centralized or Quebec might not be receiving its 'fair share'," he said.

Dion says that he is open to reforming the Senate, perhaps on regional grounds, involving the concession of powers from Ontario and Atlantic Canada. Such reform, he says, is popular in Western Canada, as demonstrated by recent polls.

"Separatist blackmail leads us to consider changes not in order to improve the country, but to save it. And this leads to an escalation, with each side believing that the changes it is proposing are of life-and-death importance."