Memorandum from Mr. R.G. Robertson [Patriation of the constitution; Prime Minister’s reaction to my memorandum of July 17th and attachment] to Mr. Hurley (30 July 1975)
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Date: 1975-07-30
By: R.G. Robertson
Citation: Memorandum from Mr. R.G. Robertson to Mr. Hurley (30 July 1975).
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CONFIDENTIAL
Mr.Carter
Mr. Gravelle
Mrs. Reed
July 30th, 1975.
MEMORANDUM FOR MR.HURLEY:
Patriation of the constitution; Prime Minister’s
reaction to my memorandum of July 17th
and attachment
Since I will not be in the office this week, I am ending to you the original of my memorandum of July 17th to the Prime Minister with his comments and the note by Mary Macdonald which summarizes them.
I think it would be desirable to lose no time in getting a French version of the material prepared. This may require a combination of legal draftsmanship plus Jean LeMoyne. Perhaps the right way to approach it would be to discuss the matter with Barbara Reed as to whether there is someone in Justice to whom we might turn for a first draft. I would think that, before it is finished, the Prime Minister would want to know that Jean LeMoyne had looked it over.
As to substance, it seems to me that what we ought to have prepared in a French version is Appendix 1, with the references to “culture” in parenthesis wherever they occur. As you will see from the notes, the Prime Minister is not convinced of the wisdom of having “culture” included butI think we ought to retain the references until a specific decision is taken.
With regard to Appendix 2, it would seem that there is no need to have a French version prepared at all. The Prime Minister seems clearly to prefer Appendix 3 with the deletion of half of Article 1 and the insertion of the reference to Article 3 in Article 6.
It might be useful to have a French version prepared of Article 10 of Appendix 2 but I do not think it should be added to Appendix 3 at this time. It can simply be held in reserve for use if that becomes necessary.
[Page 2]
Would you please try to move ahead with this immediately sothat we will not be found wanting if by any chance the Prime Minister should decide that he wants to have any discussion of this with Mr. Bourassa during August.
That seems to be a clear possibility from his final note.
R.G.R.