th

N.B. hearings rally Meech Lake opposition

The special legislative committee on
Meech Lake convened by Premier Frank
McKenna and the New Brunswick govern-
ment has now wrapped up public hearings.

€ vast majority of the women’s, Native
and other groups and individuals who
appeared before the committee denounced
the accord as undemocratic, and came out
in support of McKenna’s stand on the issue.

There are, of course, many who doubt
the depth of the premier’s opposition to the
accord. McKenna acquired quite the repu-
tation as a horse-trader prior to the federal
election when it became obvious that he had
cut a deal on free trade in return for the
awarding of the second frigate program to
the troubled Saint John shipyard. There is
speculation now that he may be prepared to
“revise” his approach to Meech Lake if the
federal cabinet comes across with $1.5
billion for the upgrading of the New
Brunswick section of the TransCanada
highway.

Nevertheless, New Brunswick’s formal
Opposition to Meech Lake has focussed
country-wide attention on Canada’s consti-
tutional crisis and helped to rally popular
demands by Native peoples, women’s
Organizations and others for constitutional
recognition of their democratic rights.

But the debate in New Brunswick over
the Accord, language policy and the consti-
tution also has its darker side. The Meech
Lake issue, together with the debate over
Bill 101 and language policy in Quebec, has
provided an opportunity to English Cana-
dian chauvinists and bigots of every fashion
to whip up anti-bilingualism and anti-
Acadian sentiments in many parts of the
province.

The ultra-right has long fixed on the pro-
vince’s official bilingualism as its primary
target. More than 20 years ago, the N.B.-
based Canadian Loyalists Association
wrote-to then Liberal. premierouis-Robi-
chaud to protest the new Official Languages
Act. The group warned that the goal of two
official languages amounted to the “legal-
ized French colonization of Canada.”
Other groups, such as the English-Speaking
Canadians Association, have continually
attempted to derail any serious move
toward bilingualism in the province.

In fact the Acadians, who constitute up
to one-third of the province’s population of
700,000, have been denied fundamental
€conomic and linguistic equality virtually

Miguel
Figueroa

FROM THE
MARITIMES

since Confederation. The first provincial
legislation in 1968, creating two official lan-
guages, was grossly inadequate.

Subsequent legislation under the Hatfield
government improved prospects for those
living in the province to receive equal treat-
ment in their own language, but this has
required hiring more government workers
with capacity in both French and English.
The new policy in turn has triggered fears
among some unilingual anglophones over
access to public sector jobs.

A canvass of provincial government
workers reveals, however, that these fears
are largely unwarranted. Still, with official
unemployment over 13.3 per cent and with
nearly one in every four young male
workers out of work (24 per cent), dema-
gogic appeals against the economic costs of
bilingualism have taken some hold.

The latest ultra-right grouping to whip
up English-Canadian chauvinism in the
province is the Confederation of Regions
party (CoR). While now a discredited and
isolated right-wing party in western Can-
ada, CoR has been making some alarming
headway in New Brunswick.

In the last federal election, for instance,
the CoR party ran in seven of N.B.’s 10
ridings, garnering 5.9 per cent ot the popu-
lar vote or a total of 16,784 votes. By com-
parison; they. ran three~times~as many
candidates in Ontario and only won 18,000
votes.

CoR organizers have been busy ever
since the elections setting up provincial con-
stituency groups. To date, 23 of N.B.’s 58
ridings have a local CoR apparatus. CoR’s
leader, Elmer Knutson — who incidentally
prides himself as Canada’s ninth largest
Chrysler dealer — just finished a province-
wide tour where he spoke to large audiences
in several large and smaller centres.

Knutson has a predictably simple mes-

Sage, one designed to bring out intolerance
and bigotry in his audience: “CoR wants
one official language — English . . . (we’re)
bigger than Quebec. We don’t have to listen
to Quebec anymore ... we’re sick and tired
of being governed by a minority — by the
Acadians in New Brunswick and by Quebec
in Canada.”

CoR’s Atlantic president, Delores Cook,
adds her voice to the anti-French rant: “aE
they (Quebec) want to separate, they’d bet-
ter use any kind of transportation they can
find to move on because that piece of land
belongs to Canada.” She later clarifies:
“This country is ours by right of conquest.”

Knutson and CoR find it difficult to res-
trict their bigotry to the Acadians and Que-
becois. In St. Stephen, Knutson went on to
attack our “soft” immigration laws which
allow so many East Indians “with diapers
on their heads” into our fair land.

The right-wing harangue against bilingu-
alism has reached into the highest ranks of
the Conservative party, dividing it still
further after its disastrous showing in the
last provincial election. Ed Allen, Tory pro-
vincial spokesperson and former minister in
the Hatfield government, came out publicly
a few weeks ago identifying himself with
“some of the frustrations expressed by the
anti-bilingualism CoR party.” The state-
ment brought quick calls for his resignation
from party officials and Acadian commun-
ity representatives.

This right-wing campaign does not
immediately threaten New Brunswick’s bil-
ingualism policies, but it would be fool-
hardy to underestimate its importance.
While CoR’s star may fall long before the
next provincial eleciton, its quick rise in
popularity signals fertile ground for right-
wing, populist causes in some parts of the
province,

With Malcolm Ross peddling his “holo-
caust is a hoax” anti-semitism in Moncton,
racists from the League of Free Speech
holding forth in Fredericton, and Knutson
and company spewing their bigotry from
Saint John to Woodstock, there is a real
danger of a political shift to the right.

Hate-mongerers rarely go away of their
own accord. They must be exposed and
challenged. Progressive and democratic-
minded people in English, Acadian and
Native communities across New Brunswick
need to find the ways to give such a united
response.

Scrap the Accord, demands New Brunswick

FREDERICTON — The New Bruns-
wick Federation of Labour has called on
the province’s legislature to reject the Meech
Lake Accord. Speaking to hearings called
by a special select committee of the legisla-
ture last month, NBFL president Tim
McCarthy called the Accord “fundamen-
tally flawed and undemocratic.”

Speaking on behalf of the federation’s
7,000 members, McCarthy voiced his sup-
Port for Quebec joining the constitution.
But the Accord falls short of meeting
Quebec’s need to protect its unique culture
and invests too much power in the other
Provinces, he said.

The federation also criticized the Accord
for excluding Canada’s aboriginal peoples
and backed Native demands that self-
80vernment be enshrined in the Constitu-
ton. It also extended support for constitu-
Honal recognition of Francophones living
outside Quebec,

_ In his brief, McCarthy called into ques-
ton the whole premise of the existing con-
stitution because it was enacted without

Public input. Ottawa should call a “constit-

uent assembly,” he said, “including repre-

Sentatives from all components of society,

Mandated to draft a new constitution.” The

Pe TUNE plan would be ratified by referen-
um,

“In a democracy, sovereignty belongs to
people,” he said. “Constitution is the fun-
damental law of the land, so that popula-
tion must be involved in its definition. This
democratic process would allow people to
express their wishes with regard to the polit-
ical, social and economic system they
desire.”

With the exception of Manitoba, New
Brunswick remains the last province to

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endorse the Meech Lake Accord. Premier
Frank McKenna was elected on a program
of opposition to the deal.

Although many Canadian labour bodies
and unions are on record opposing Meech
Lake, few have campaigned in opposition
to the Accord for fear of offending the New
Democratic Party which supports it. The
NBFL is the first labour federation to take
this step.

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