4 - Wednesday, February 27, 1991 ~ North Shore News

Masse’s manoeuvre another sign of the decline of the Canadian empire

JUST WHEN I think there is nothing more that can be done by the Mulroney government to outrage me, Com- munications Minister Marcel Masse announces he is pour- ing $45 million into something called — are you ready? — an ‘Institute for Research on Cultural Enterprises.”’

It will be located — you knew! — in Montreal.

This, at a time when the polls indicate most Quebecers are ready to leave Canada, the ruling party in Quebec is calling for a referen- dum on sovereignty (something that used to be a ‘‘separatist’’ idea), and the disloyal opposition is strutting about as though in- dependence were a fait accompli.

When questioned about how he would vote in such a referendum, Communications Minister Masse flatly refused to answer. The im- portant point is that he wouldn't promise to vote for federalism.

This is a guy who had to swear allegiance to the Queen in order to get his limousine, entourage, parliamentary pension and sundry cabinet perks, including being able to fly down to Hollywood to accept Oscars on behalf of the ac- tual artists who did the work at the National Film Board.

Masse sounded as evasive as Lucien Bouchard when asked 2 similar question a couple of months before he waiked out of the Tory caucus and into the arms of the cheering Quebec na- tionalists.

It’s a fact of life that Brian Mulroney tried to co-opt the separatist movement in Quebec by offering known sympathizers choice political plums, including cabinet positions.

In the rush to conquer Quebec for the Tories, Mulroney supped with the separatist devils, purchas- ing the votes they could deliver with payoffs in power, prestige — and most importantly — access to the federal coffers.

Bouchard adroitly used his time in high office in Ottawa to build up a profile in Quebec, enough to position him to become de facto leader of the Bloc Quebecois, and possibly the first president of the Republic of Quebec.

Masse, we see, has been using his time and the wealth he can get his hands on to build up a similar profile, although his methodology has been more blatantly a matter of bribery.

It has been infuriating enough over the years to see the big ticket buyoffs go in the direction of Quebec, from airplane contracts to the entire headquarters of the space program, and now — at this moment of all moments! — a

Bot Hunter

STRICTLY PERSONAL

patronage payment to the vocifer- ously independence-minded Fren- ch-Canadian artistic community.

Is there one artist in Quebec who isn’t in favor of the na- tionalist position? If there is, he or she has sure been invisible in still-mainly English-speaking Canada.

Now, it so happens that I’m one of those English-speakers who favors the departure of Quebec.

Confederation has long since stopped being a good dea! for the English-speaking majority. It has turned into something ap- proaching tyranny by a minority.

Western pulp mill fined for violations

WESTERN PULP Partnership Ltd. was fined $80,000 last Friday in Squamish provincial court after lawyers for its Woodfibre miil in Howe Sound pleaded guilty to four charges of violating its pollu- tion-contro} permits.

Western was fined $20,009 on each of the four permit violations.

The company was originally charged with 12 pollution-related counts in August 1988, but com- pany lawyer Ed Chiasson entered a guilty plea on only four of the 12 counts.

Music

The Crown entered a stay of proceedings in the remaining eight charges laid against Western Pulp.

In handing down the sentence, Judge C.1. Walker noted thar Western Pulp had shown remorse for the permit violations and add- ed that it was important for the Woodfibre mill to continue to operate because the local com- munity relies heavily on the mill as a major employer.

Western Pulp could have been fined up to $50,000 on each con- viction, but both the Crown and

A New Four-Part Film Series From World Wide Pictures Featuring Billy Graham “Hope For The Family” Saturday, March 2nd — Free Admission “Hope For The Lonely” Saturday, March 9th

“Hope For Forgiveness’ Saturday, March 16th “Hope For Commitment” Saturday, March 23rd

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the defence suggested fines of be- tween $15,000 and $20,000.

Crown prosecutor Allen Blair, who told the court that Woodfibre has consistently violated its per- mits, said he was happy with the sentence.

Last May, Woodfibre attempted to have all 12 charges thrown out of court, arguing that it had an agreement with the provincial government that allowed it to ex- ceed its permits while an upgrading project took place at the mill.

980-5514/988-6923

The fact that our prime minister now has to come from Quebec, which is the only place a can- didate can score enough bloc votes to dominate a federal election, means that the balance of power has shifted profoundly.

The loss for Canadians outside of Quebec has only been a matter of degree, | admit, since, at best, we have never been much more than a crude patchwork atiempt at democracy.

We haven't tried representation by population. We are still struc- tured in a monarchist hierarchy, And our adopted British parliamentary system guarantees tule by backroom oligarchs issuing orders-in-council, occasionally overruled by a cabal of appointed party hacks.

With all those liabilities — plus regional inequities to boot — the Canadian federal system has become intolerably rotten.

Readers of this column will know that I favor a Swiss can- ton-style federation, with central- ized powers reduced to a mini- mum, a national council, a rotating presidency, and a strong commitment to self-defence.

In addition, | belie. 2 the 600- odd Indian reserves should be consolidated into a single pro- vince, with the same powers as the others, including Quebec.

This attitude has been shaped

over the years as much by disillu- sionment with the current version of Canada as by a long look at Canadian history, which you may notice has never sustained a status quo for very long.

This country is an empire-in- the-making, not quite complete in the sense of having failed to in- corporate its conquered Yukon and Northwest Territories into the national political framework, and having not even come close to ab- sorbing the rebellious reserves ~ our ‘Gaza Strips.”

And already the Canadian em- pire is a-crumble, maybe the first in history to disintegrate before it managed to mature.

Characters like Marcel Masse should simply not be allowed to feather their future political nests in an independent Quebec with Canadian taxpayers’ bucks.

An action like that — $45 mil- lion for French cultural studies, give me a break! — amounts to public looting of the federal treasury.

Not only should Marcel Masse be sacked immediately, or at least forced to take a lie detector test and asked about his loyalties, there should be a moratorium on any new federal funding for pro- jects in Quebec until the issue of sovereignty is settled. .

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