Officials Plan Moves to Hold Canada Together

The government of Canada on Monday sketched the process it will use to try to keep this country from fracturing along regional and linguistic lines, a process that will begin with a set of proposed constitutional amendments to be unveiled in September.

While far from being bold or detailed, the government’s pledge was the clearest indication Canadians have had so far of what their elected officials will do about demands from Quebec that “English Canada” find a way of keeping the country together.

Quebec has threatened that if the federal government has not issued any unification proposals by fall, it will hold a referendum next year on whether to stay in Canada. The results of such a referendum are hard to predict: Many polls for months had indicated that Quebecers would vote to secede, but some more recent ones now suggest that the Francophone yen for independence is on the decline.

The federal government’s general response to the situation was revealed in its ceremonial “Speech to the Throne,” an annual presentation roughly equivalent to America’s State of the Union address. The speech delivered by Canadian Governor General Ray Hnatyshyn is said to represent the thinking of Prime Minister Brian Mulroney.

Hnatyshyn said that in September the government will issue a set of proposals for amending the Canadian constitution, aimed at correcting regional and linguistic differences that have been festering in this country for the past year.

A special parliamentary committee will then travel the length and breadth of Canada, discussing the proposals in public sessions with provincial legislators and native-Canadian groups. Five months after that, the lawmakers are to report back to Ottawa with a completed formula for getting Canada back on its feet.

While Hnatyshyn’s speech outlined Mulroney’s plan for constitutional reform, there was no indication of what the reform itself might involve.

The immediate response to the vague pledges was disappointment, even anger. The government has already dispatched a special panel--dubbed the Spicer Commission for its chairman, Keith Spicer--to crisscross Canada, holding town-hall meetings and collecting grass-roots opinion on where the country should be going. Spicer recently completed his rounds and is drafting a report of his findings, due in early July.

In addition, there are a number of other reform panels working at the provincial level, and the Mulroney government has its own staff working on ways of amending the constitution, redistributing power and keeping the country together.

So one more commission, especially one with a vague mission, failed to impress many Canadians.