“Mr. Bourassa wants it all”, Toronto Globe & Mail (28 August 1975)
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Date: 1975-08-28
By: Toronto Globe & Mail
Citation: “Mr. Bourassa wants it all”, Toronto Globe & Mail (28 August 1975).
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Privy Council Office Bureau du Conseil privé
PRESS CLIPPINGS COUPURES DE JOURNAUX
Name of Publication Nom de la publication
Toronto Globe & Mail
Date
AUG 28 1975
Mr. Bourassa wants it all
Quebec Premier Bourassa has made his position perfectly clear. He does not want Canada’s constitution repatriated. At the moment it rests with the Parliament of the United Kingdom under the name of the British North America Act. The conditions Mr. Bourassa requires before agreeing to any Canadian constitution are not likely to be acceptable to the other nine provinces, let alone the federal Government.
Mr. Bourassa says that any Canadian constitution would have to include guarantees that the Quebec Government would have final authority over its culture, language, communications systems and immigration. The stated intention of these proposed guarantees is to ensure that no future Canadian Government need be relied on to protect the French presence in Quebec. In fact, what the guarantees would do is create a state within a state.
Mr. Bourassa cannot really expect Ottawa and the other provinces to agree to guarantees that would virtually dismantle Confederation; or if he does, he is playing for high stakes indeed.