June 23, 1990 – Defeat of Meech Lake Accord

Democratic Renewal and a Modern Constitution Are an Urgent Need – The significance of the Meech Lake Accord today is that in this era the people want to be the arbiters and decision-makers. It is the work for democratic renewal which will open society’s path to progress.

On June 23, 1990, the Meech Lake Accord was defeated. It was a set of amendments to the Constitution of Canada negotiated behind closed doors in 1987 by Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and the provincial premiers. The failure of the Meech Lake Accord marked a deepening of the constitutional crisis which has now become an existential crisis due to Canada’s all-sided integration into the U.S. war economy and state arrangements.

149th Anniversary of Confederation: A modern constitution is a historic necessity

Canada Day 2016 marks the beginning of one year of preparation to mark the 150th anniversary of Confederation in 1867. All the developments in the recent history of Canada point to the urgent need to provide Canada with a modern constitution that vests sovereignty in the people instead of a foreign monarch, gives expression to democratic renewal, provides equal rights and duties for all, and which emanates from the people themselves, instead of being imposed on them by a privileged few who hold power.

149th Anniversary of Confederation: Give Canada a modern constitution and definition of rights

July 1 marks the 149th anniversary of Confederation, the date on which the British North America Act, 1867 went into effect and united four separate colonies of the British Empire in North America into a Dominion of Canada. This included the all-unsurrendered Quebec nation and the Indigenous nations on the territory, which have been subject to the worst attacks and Divide and Rule from the Anglo-Canadian state to this day.

Government announces themes for 150th anniversary of Confederation in 2017

Attempts to divert the people from the pressing questions of our time

On May 25, Minister of Canadian Heritage Melanie Joly announced the government’s themes for the 150th anniversary of Confederation in 2017 under the slogan “Time for Youth and Active Living!”
The announcement came during what was described as “an outdoor canoeing activity” at Kiwanis Memorial Park in Saskatoon.

This day. Quebec Patriots Day, May 23

Long live the nation-building project of today’s Quebec Patriots!

Assembly of the Six Counties on October 23 and October 24, 1837, a gathering of some 6,000 Patriots held in Saint-Charles, Lower Canada, in defiance of a British proclamation forbidding public assemblies.

Today, the Quebec nation marks Patriots Day. Patriots Day celebrates the striving of the people to affirm their right to be. Beginning in the spring of 1837, when the British Crown formally rejected the demands of the Legislative Assembly of Lower Canada included in the 92 Resolutions of 1834, numerous mass meetings broke out across Quebec where the people spoke and demanded their democratic rights.

Ending colonial relations with Indigenous peoples must be a central demand

Two-Row Wampum leads the march against Bill C-51, Parliament Hill, May 30, 2015. Participants affirm nation-to-nation relations with Indigenous peoples as the basis of unity in action in defence of the rights of all.

• Government’s agenda for First Nations sidesteps crucial issue of where sovereignty lies – Philip Fernandez
• Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s final report underscores need to end colonial relations with Indigenous peoples
• Highlights of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission Final Report
• First Nations and Allies demand full participation in National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls
• Profound opposition in Quebec to police abuse of Indigenous women – Diane Johnston

Government’s agenda for First Nations sidesteps crucial issue of where sovereignty lies

By PHILIP FERNANDEZ

On December 8, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau spoke at the annual Special Chiefs Assembly of the Assembly of First Nations (AFN). Among various pledges he made there, he called for a “renewed nation-to-nation” relationship with First Nations based on “respect, co-operation, and partnership,” guided by “the spirit and intent of the original treaty relationship; one that respects inherent rights, treaties and jurisdictions, and the decisions of our courts.”

Trudeau’s speech was received with optimism at the AFN Special Chiefs’ Assembly, surely because his words promise an improvement over the Harper government’s abysmal relationship with First Nations. But what the Trudeau government claims will be a “renewed nation-to-nation” relationship has as yet to be fully revealed.

A modern constitution and political renewal are the demands of the times

Anniversary of the defeat of the Meech Lake Accord

June 23 marks the 24th anniversary of the defeat of the Meech Lake Accord in 1990. The Meech Lake Accord was a set of amendments to the Constitution of Canada negotiated behind closed doors by then Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and the ten provincial premiers. One of its key objectives was to resolve the constitutional crisis caused by Quebec’s refusal to sign the patriated Constitution Act, 1982 of the Trudeau government, but it failed to do so. Like the 1980 Quebec Referendum before it, it sought to affirm the place of Quebec within Canada. But its  failure  to clarify the status of Quebec in a manner that accords with its concrete reality as a nation with the right to self-determination prevented this.

After the defeat of the 1980 referendum, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau promised to draft a new constitutional agreement.

Canada Day with the royals (II): Reject Harper’s fascist one nation politics

Part two of a two-part series by TONY SEED. Part one is here.

(July 1, 2001) – THE Canada Day editorial of the Halifax Chronicle Herald is an incoherent rant pregnant with veiled threats against the Canadian people emanating from divine right.

It gives real meaning to “smitten” as in its banner headline “Canadians smitten [1] with royal newlyweds.”

Canada Day with the royals (1): We are not ‘smitten’ nor ‘smote’ nor amused

Protesters wait for the arrival of Britain’s Prince Charles and his wife Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, in Montreal, November 10, 2009. REUTERS/Christinne Muschi (CANADA ROYALS CONFLICT)

Part one of a two part series by TONY SEED, Part two is here.

HALIFAX (July 1, 2011, revised July 4) – THE July 1st headline of the Halifax Chronicle Herald leaps into never-never land with its banner of another royal tour: “Canadians smitten [1] with royal newlyweds.” The entire front page of the second section is also given over to fawning coverage of the alleged affair. Then you read more carefully. “A small crowd … at the government airport.” A “walk-about” amongst tourists to the nation’s capital with nothing else to do but touch the elephant!