By Klaus Rohrich
Tuesday, November 28, 2006
For over thirty years now, a succession of federal politicians have diligently worked to kill the country that we knew as Canada. The latest in this death of a million cuts is Prime Minister Stephen Harper's intention of declaring the Quebecois as a "nation within a united Canada”. Talk about Doublespeak and Newthink, the fictional devices invented by dystopian author George Orwell. Problem is that Orwell wasn't audacious enough in his portrayal of these devices. He couldn't possibly predict what tautological contortions politicians were prepared to employ to remain in power.
The death of Canada began with Pierre Trudeau's forays into cultural equivalence. The initiation of multiculturalism as an official Canadian "value” coincidentally initiated the break up of Canada. If there is no such thing as Canadian culture and all other culture is equal to that which was once Canadian, then the cultures that settle on these shores will not be absorbed by the larger body politic. Instead the new multiple cultures declare themselves separate and apart from Canadian culture, resulting in an assortment of Balkanized urban ghettoes comprised of individuals with cultural similarities and little or no interest in joining the Canadian mainstream.
The next insult to Canadian unity came with the recognition of aboriginals as "First Nations”. This had two reprehensible results in that it further separated aboriginals from the mainstream and condemned the common residents of reservations to the whims and sometimes corrupt practices of native leaders. The result is that pride of home ownership doesn't exist for aboriginals, as mortgages are virtually impossible to obtain, since financial institutions cannot encumber land located on native reserves. The establishment of these First Nations, about 600 at last count, further took away any national sense of unity and enshrined the concept that some Canadians are more equal than others.
That's why those living on reserves are not obligated to pay taxes, are entitled to free prescription drug benefits, can hunt and fish year ‘round, whether or not what they are hunting is in season, and are entitled to free college or university tuition. Instead of providing aboriginals with the wherewithal to make their own way, recognizing them as separate nations within Canada has in effect made them dependent on the largesse of the Government of Canada, while it furthered the slow disintegration of Canada.
Then there is Quebec.
For nearly 40 years la Belle Province has been using the threat of separation from Canada to enhance its position within federation. This has resulted in an inordinate amount of federal funds washing up on the shores of Quebec as well as a position of influence and power that is totally at odds with Quebec's contribution to the nation. It seems that in the second half of the 20th Century, Quebec even supplied the majority of Canadian Prime Ministers, regardless of their party affiliation.
Quebec has enacted a discriminatory set of laws designed to squelch the use of any other language but French within the province. This draconian set of laws, known as Bill 101, even survived a Supreme Court challenge, all in the interest of appeasement and political expedience. There was the Meech Lake Kerfuffle and the Charlottetown Flap, neither of which is well understood by the average Canadian, however, both highlighted the prickliness of Quebec.
It is curious that those initiatives taken in the interest of ending discrimination usually end up being discriminatory. Multiculturalism discriminates against natural-born Canadians, the so-called "First Nations” discriminate against non-aboriginals and the language laws of Quebec discriminate against non-French speakers.
and now we have a resolution recognizing "that the Quebecois form a nation within a united Canada”. So if the Quebecois are a nation within a united Canada and the 600 First Nations are also nations within a united Canada where does that leave the rest of us? Can we refine our uniqueness to include individual families as being a "nation within a united Canada'? What about the Smith nation or the Jones nation, or yes, even the Rohrich nation? We are all legitimate special interest groups within a united Canada; surely we all deserve the same courtesy accorded to the others. Or is it that those "nations”, those Smiths and Joneses and Rohrichs aren't making enough of a nuisance of themselves to deserve appeasement by Canada's political class.
apparently the only people in Canada who care about or are in favor of separating out the various nations within Canada are the politicians. as B.C.'s Premier Gordon Campbell wrote in Monday's National Post, "...this resolution should provide a positive foundation for nation-building, not another divisive national distraction”. Gee, Gordie, I was always under the impression that Canada did not require "nation building”, that we've been a nation as far back as 1867.
So it would appear that somehow Canada has ceased to be a nation, dying a slow and very agonizing death, a train wreck in super slow motion. It's the result of the political class attempting to be all things to all people. I am deeply disappointed that this latest insult to Canada should come from a Conservative Prime Minister. Disappointed, but not surprised.
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