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O what wimps we Canadians be

Premier Bernard Landry was at his old tricks on Remembrance Day. Shunning the ceremonies for Canada's war dead at Montreal's cenotaph, he attended the separatist Société Saint-Jean-Baptiste's commemoration in Montreal's main Catholic cemetery for "those everywhere who died for the liberty and independence of peoples."

The Premier, speaking to reporters, joined together those who died "in the fight for liberty" and those who press for Quebec's secession. "Quebec is a nation, and very democratically and peacefully is searching for full liberty. . . . The liberty of France, the liberty of Italy, the liberty of the U.K. and the liberty for Quebec and Canada are all components of the harmony of the world."

The Premier can press his fallacious association between democracy, liberty and secession only because Canada's elites are so ignorant about the meaning and imperatives of democracy. Democracy means government by the people -- the whole people. No mature democracy accepts a "right" for some part of the people to hold a referendum and secede.

And in Canada? Jean Chrétien wrote in his memoirs, Straight from the Heart: " 'We'll put our faith in democracy,' I said. 'We'll convince the people that they should stay in Canada and we'll win. If we don't win, I'll respect the wishes of Quebeckers and let them separate.' "

In 1995, bare months before Quebec's referendum on secession, ex-separatist Guy Bertrand went to court to have the process proposed by Jacques Parizeau declared unconstitutional. He wrote to Mr. Chrétien and then justice minister Allan Rock to invite their intervention. Both refused, though the Quebec Superior Court judge soon ruled that Draft Bill 1, which was to declare the sovereignty of Quebec, would be "clearly illegal."

After the close call of the Oct. 30 referendum, a number of us held a widely publicized event on Jan. 21, 1996, in which we declared that "if Canada is divisible, Quebec is divisible; if Canada is divided, Quebec will be divided." Almost all the beautiful people were shocked and appalled. Fifteen prominent citizens, including Peter White, then president of the Council for Canadian Unity and former chief of staff to Brian Mulroney, signed a joint statement saying that to secede was as legitimate as to remain part of the federation. Quebeckers had the right to choose any constitutional status, and no conditions were implied.

Eventually, Ottawa was shamed into referring the legality of secession to the Supreme Court. Joan Fraser, then editor of The Gazette, now a senator, wrote: "Nobody outside the lunatic fringe argues that Quebec has no right to become independent, if that is what Quebeckers demonstrate clearly, decisively and democratically that they want."

The justices, it turned out, joined the lunatic fringe. They stated unanimously that unilateral secession was a violation of the Constitution and had no justification in international law. Secession could only be achieved legally by amending the Constitution.

Undeterred, Ms. Fraser spoke in the Senate on March 30, 2000: "A country exists because its people want it to exist -- that is its only moral basis for being. If part of its population truly wishes to leave, they clearly have the fundamental right to do so."

While the issue was before the court, Montreal Archbishop Jean-Claude Turcotte said: "The Supreme Court of Canada can say what it wants. Even if the court says that we don't have the right to do it [secede], if the people decide to do it, it's the people that are sovereign. I am a democrat."

The beaver? Our iconic national animal should be the lemming.
wjohnson@globeandmail.ca