Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - December 1, 1987, Winnipeg, Manitoba Q31ipt Winnipeg free press december 1987 Page focus separatism loses reasons for existing by Lovell Clark special to the free press with the death of Rene Levesque and the subsequent disarray in the parti May we conclude that separatism in Quebec is finished for All practical purposes the answer is it had ceased to be an option some years As Levesque himself recon this categorical death sentence on separatism will meet with Dis agreement from Many who think of separatism As a continuous strand in Quebec and As one subject to revival in the in such people Are confusing separatism with whereas the two Are quite different nationalism will Long exist among Al it is to be in not too virulent a just As it has Long been present among English Ana sometimes accompanied by unfortunate acts of bigotry against Canada cannot stand extremes of nationalism in either group even at the Best of a successful prime minister must walk the narrow path Between the prejudices of his French and English speaking out of character separatism was totally out of character with the traditions of moderation displayed by French canadians throughout their it was an aberration which arose in the late 1950s and Early 1960s from two specific causes which have Long since vanished and which Are extremely unlikely to recur in the foreseeable it is its failure to understand the unique causes of separatism in Quebec that has caused the rest or Canada to alter Nate Between moods of unreasoning hostility and unnecessary appease humiliating the first cause was an absolutely humiliating and intolerable one the economic inferiority of French the following figures the average equals com paring their per capita income with other groups in the province of shows the situation in 1961 jewish British German ukrainian French italian others these figures Are a brutal commentary on the economic inferiority of in their own Only Quebe cers of italian extraction occupied a lower rung on the economic and that because Many of the latter were recent there Are those who will say As it was said at the time that the differences in income were accounted for by differences in Edu employment and other Vari discrimination these variables were shown by professor Andre some time chairman of the economic Council of to account for less than 50 per cent of the income the remainder resulted from in other words from discrimination against Reynauld statistical analysis for that Ethni City accounted for of the differ ence in income per annul Between angles and French canadians of equivalent education and occupy in other even if he heeded the traditional advice to in Vest in himself through and so a French a Nadian could still look Forward to an income about 15 per cent lower than that of his counterpart of British less income what it came Down to was that a fluently bilingual francophone que Becer of equivalent and occupation received much less income than a unilingual Anglo phone added to of was the fact that the com manding Heights of the Economy were occupied by companies such As Sun which had done most of its business among French canadians for Gen once a powerful emotional Issue in is now dead and had scarcely a single one of them among its managerial it is Little wonder that when it decided to move its head office to As did Many other firms at the French canadians were inclined to say 6071 Debarras Good riddance Given these can any Canadian View other than with the militant reaction of Many French canadians any self respecting youth among them would naturally be driven to Mili even to All that has Long the humiliating income disparities have been French Ana Diane occupy the commanding Heights of the Economy and French is the working language of the province As it should always have Paul Desmarais is head of the country largest Power corporation and Hydro que built and staffed by French a is one of the largest Cor these Are Only two examples among the one substantial cause of separatism is gone Able French canadians Are concerned to pursue business careers and All other ave Nues of not to rail against a vanished the other cause of separatism was More but nevertheless simply Many French canadians had a distorted knowledge of their in spite of their be me so Viens i remember their understanding of their past is Little better than that of most which is not saying the distortion came from an extreme nationalist centred at the University of exciting these nationalist historians were not overtly although some but their conclusions pointed clearly in that the late Guy fre whose la Guerre de la con Quet the War of the Conquest is dramatic and exciting developed a catastrophic View of the Conquest of new France by Britain in in his View and that of Many the Conquest Des troyed a Well developed and flour Ishing it was an unrelieved disaster from which French Canada would never recover unless and until it was once More free and Independent As it supposedly had been prior to undiminished it is not possible Here to Point out in any detail the implications of this catastrophic suffice it to say that the effects of the disaster of 1760 were conceived to continue with the result that advances since and Angle French relations were seriously warped when seen through the nationalist the Quebec act of the granting of representative government in the achievement of responsible government in the and the adoption of a Federal system of govern ment in were All dismissed As charades of Little superseded today that too has the nationalist school has been superseded by a much More moderate and balanced school of emanating especially from Laval University and As who Are concerned to Analyse the socioeconomic and other factors which account for Quebec development both before and after the the distorted View of the nationalists is no longer sustain clearly dead thus the two unique causes of separatism have separatism itself was clearly dead by the time of the referendum of when the innocuous proposal put to the Quebec electorate could gain the support of Only 40 per it was Clear that a forthright proposal of Independence would have received far less than half that sup it is to the credit of Rene Levesque that he understood and accepted this it will be surprising if an Intelli gent Man such As Jacques Parizeau undertakes to resuscitate a move ment which is although the diehards and doctrinaire in the parti quebecois May incite him to make the the two substantial causes of separatism have Van never to Lovell Clark is a senior scholar in the department of history at the University of and an honorary fellow of Johns Alberta gives itself another poke in the Eye Over use of French Edmonton Send the Alberta conservatives out to wrestle with and they will give the prov Ince a Nasty Black Eye every they have done it again with their so called Compromise Over use of French in the once they have made the province with the country highest percent age of students in immersion classes look like a Haven for Happy red late last month the conservatives slammed through new rules that will allow questions to be asked in French or any other language As Long As the questioner gives two hours and provides a trans so not French is at least mentioned before other Ian Don braid in Alberta and the notice Rule is reason Able in our painfully unilingual Cham this is better than the previous Rule that banned French questions there is a though before any question is the speaker must give his this ensures that French remains clearly inferior and firmly under no Chance Chez Nous of a Rene Levesque springing up to perfume the air with gallic Denis head of the French Canadian association of Calls this totally so does Leo the francophone la who began the whole business last april when he tried to ask a question in French and was ordered to speak a new would like nothing better than to end the affair but the govern ment wont let it refuses to allow what nearly every other prov Ince permits the free use of French by members like represent francophone if we assume that the tories them selves Are not bigots dont do it too there is Only one reason for this the conservatives dread backlash from Albertas powerful ethnic especially the they fear that if French gets any kind of special they will be crushed by an Eastern european this is ancient parents from All backgrounds Are packing their children into Albertas French immersion our for goes to immersion classes with a a and a Fedoruk Well As a a Chan and a a livelier melting pot you Hope to and not one of the parents would be outraged if Piquette got to ask a question without permission having been first Given by the but the government takes the War on French even beyond the Legisla Ture into the the Alberta court of Appeal has just ruled that nobody has the right to a trial in French in this happened because the conservatives refused to accept a 1986 court of Queens Bench ruling or Dering a French trial for Luc a an Ontario francophone charged with drug the government and the court of Appeal reversed the even though a few French trials since the original Case have shown that it can be done in this there Are French speaking judges to weigh the French pea King lawyers to defend the and French speaking Crown attorneys to prosecute this Little network will now pass out of unless the supreme court reverses the decision yet the High court is now the Only Hope for albertan who want to see a minimum level of respect for a Saskatchewan Case May yet Force the use of French without permission in the legislature and the Fate of French trials will Likely be decided there this is Fine with the they will accept French when they Are ordered no matter what the impression outside the so they can always Tell the ethnics it want their there Are Many words to describe such a but the Best by far is Don braid is a Calgary Herald getting the Best return on Purchase of nuclear subs by Anderson special to the free press Ottawa recent reporting of the fund ing Levels of the defence departments plans to acquire nuclear propelled attack submarines in the editorial digging deep for nuclear submarines free november 17 suggests that admirals Are now talking about increasing that figure billion to this figure is not new and should not come As a since the free press on june reported that the estimated Cost of the program is billion to according to the White paper on defence released on june 12 the free press reported defence minister Perrin Beatty told the commons Canada will not be violating any treaty by going ahead with its billion plan to buy or build a Fleet of 10 nuclear powered attack in response to approaches by France and the United kingdom have expressed interest in supplying the necessary information and technology associated with the support and operation of the nuclear propelled Canada intends to select one of these two submarine designs and certain aspects of its support before asking Canadian Industry to bid on providing the total in support of the selection comprehensive negotiations Are proceeding with both the French and the British to establish the degree of information to be released to this information is being augmented by a series of technical visits to each the aim is to gather sufficient information on such areas As operational capability and further refine Cost following an evaluation will be done and a country origin will be selected in the Spring of subsequent to the selection of country of Canada will enter into a project definition process in which proposals will be sought from interested Canadian Industrial two of these concerns will be selected to enter into competitive project definition and one of the two concerns will be selected to be the prime contractor responsible for the implementation and management of the this will include submarine construction for the development of the necessary logistic and personnel infrastructure which will be added to existing naval Infra it is intended to contract for the nuclear propulsion Plant separately because of strict Security and safety considerations and to Supply that Plant to the prime contractor As government furnished a major consideration of the feasibility of a nuclear propelled submarine project is for this before the defence White paper was tabled in june Canada obtained initial Cost estimates from both France and the United the estimates provided by the two coun tries were based on their extensive experience with building their respective submarine designs along with All the necessary Canada adjusted these Esti mates to reflect the costs of constructing most of the submarines in Canada and for establishing appropriate Levels of support on both this costing estimate of billion 19861987 Canadian dollars was Vali dated against Canadas own substantial experience with the management and implementation of major Crown such As the multimillion Dollar Canadian patrol Frig ate the program management and Large scale systems integration expertise gained in the frigate for will greatly assist us in the submarine since we intend to buy a proven design instead of starting from we will avoid the need for extensive test and development we Are not redesigning or designing a new submarine propulsion nor do we intend to construct fuel production and fabrication our current costs assume adding infrastructure to existing naval some experts have suggested we May be Able to construct submarines in Canada More cheaply than the British and French were Able to the estimated billion 19861987 costs Are to be spread Over the 27year life of the submarine it is projected that four boats will be produced in the 15year period forecast in the White at billion in 19861987 if the costs Are averaged Over the life of the this works out to about million per or about three per cent of the defence in is less than 10 per cent of the annual equipment it mislead ing to suggest that there is Little Chance that Money will be found for other objectives outlined in the governments White paper on free october the submarine program is based on a thorough analysis of Canadas needs and capabilities and works toward meeting future not those of the equip Ping our Navy with sons will give it a capacity which is at the forefront of military during the project definition phase to be conducted Over the next two it is intended we will obtain additional Cost data before a binding contract is we Are committed to ensuring canadians get value for their we expect that the competitive nature of the process will ensure that Canada obtains the greatest return on its investment at the lowest Rea Admiral Anderson is chief submarine he has i political horizon ;