Free at Last

The constitution is coming

In the 13 years since Pierre Elliott Trudeau was first elected Prime Minister, he has had one ambition above all others: to give his vast, fragmented land a constitution that would ensure its survival as a unified state. Last week after he made several important compromises, all but one of the eight provincial premiers who have stonewalled Trudeau's plans for 14 months dropped their opposition. After 114 years, declared the ebullient Prime Minister, "Canada will become, in a technical and legal sense, an independent country." Still, Trudeau faced one important challenge to his dream. The lone holdout against his plan among the ten premiers was Rene Levesque, leader of predominantly French-speaking Quebec, who warned, "Never will we accept that our traditional and fundamental powers be removed without our consent."

Since 1867 the basis of Canada's loose federal system has been the British North America (B.N.A.) Act. Over the decades, Britain has retained possession of the B.N.A. Act, primarily because Canadians have not been able to agree on how to amend the statute. Six weeks ago, the Canadian Supreme Court ruled that the government had the right to ask Britain to relinquish the B.N.A. Act, with changes requested by Trudeau. It stressed, however, that Canada's unwritten tradition required "at least a substantial measure of provincial consent."

There was the rub. Trudeau wanted the British to write into the constitution a charter of rights that the premiers feared would impinge upon their present autonomy, which allows them, for instance, to limit the hiring of people who move into their provinces from other areas. Trudeau also wanted the British to add a provision to the act that would limit the rights of the provinces to block constitutional amendments.

Trudeau persuaded nine premiers to accept a charter of rights. But to get an agreement he had to surrender on several points, including the process for amending the constitution. Under the formula, any amendment would have to be approved by at least seven provinces with 50% of the country's population. But any province objecting to an amendment could simply refuse to observe the change.

Levesque rejected Trudeau's compromise because of his bitter opposition to a point in the charter of rights that Trudeau considers basic: the right of English-and French-speaking minorities in provinces dominated by the other language to be educated in their mother tongue. Levesque's government has been passing legislation restricting the use of English in commerce as well as education.

Quebec's opposition will not stop the Canadian Parliament from calling upon the British Parliament to transfer the B. N. A. Act, complete with the new amending formula and charter of rights, to Ottawa. No real trouble is expected in London now that Trudeau has satisfied the concerns of the Canadian Supreme Court. Still, the compromise left Levesque, whose Parti Quebecois favors independence for the French-speaking province, disquietingly isolated and the course of his future actions in doubt. "Quebec finds itself alone," he declared. "It will be up to the Quebec people to draw their conclusions."

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