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ShadoWolf
ISOS
Registered: Apr 2002
Location: State of Trance
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http://www.washtimes.com/commentary...95316-9424r.htm
Fragmentation to the North?
By Austin Bay
Published April 29, 2005
A political specter haunts North America -- the specter of the world's next failed state.
We can still call it Canada, at least for a couple years. And who knows, like news of Mark Twain's demise, my cheeky pessimism may be greatly exaggerated. Our northern neighbor's polyglot populace of beer drinkers, peaceniks, Mounties and socialists may yet dump their crooked politicians and craft a new, more robust deal with Quebecois separatists.
If you don't know about Canada's crooked politicians, you're not alone. Democracy and free speech are breaking out in Beirut, but they're both taking a beating in Ontario. The Canadian government has a press clamp on an investigation into the ruling Liberal Party's "Adscam" kickback scheme. A "judicial publication ban" is the term. It may soon rank with the Watergate rhetoric like "modified limited hang-out." Canadian Prime Minister and Liberal Party leader Paul Martin is implicated in the Adscam fiasco, and he's starting to look like the northland's Richard Nixon.
In the Internet Age, clamps and bans crack quickly, and the Liberals have seen their popular support go poof. A U.S. Web site (www.********************.com), run by Minnesotan Ed Morrissey, started posting leaked statements from the judicial hearings. The Web site instantly became Radio Free Canada and Deep Throat combined, with hundreds of thousands of Canadians going online to read the damning evidence. Now Canadian newspapers are on the story, but it's another case of major media following the Internet's lead. On his Web site, Mr. Morrisey sums up Canada's Adscam as "transfers of cash to the Liberal Party as part of the money-laundering effort."
Linda Seebach of the Rocky Mountain News, in a column about Mr. Morrissey's coda of Watergate's Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, observed there's "hardly any coverage of what the Canadians call 'AdScam' in the U.S. press, although something that could cause the Canadian government to fall ought to be of interest to that country's southern neighbor."
But "federal" Canada remains an iffy proposition, and becomes iffier as the separatist Parti Quebecois (PQ) gains political clout at the expense of the corrupt Liberals.
Bewitched by a Never Land notion of a francophone French Quebec freed from the yoke of "English-speaking" Canada, the PQ radicals regard themselves as culturally unique, prime ethnic candidates for their own nation-state and United Nations seat. It's not a new concept. Charles de Gaulle, in a 1967 act of French unilateralism, gave Canadians the jitters when he quipped, "Vive Quebec libre."
What happens to Canada if Quebec secedes? Canadians are once again pondering this question -- live on the CBC -- and since Canada is America's No. 1 trading partner and continental neighbor, U.S. citizens should consider the ramifications.
Canadians in the western and maritime provinces already dread the political power of populous Ontario. (Quebec serves as a political balance to Ontario.) If Quebec bids adieu, "remnant" Canada's political rules will be subject to revision. Subsequent regional bickering could lead to further fragmentation.
What might a grand Canadian breakup look like? Jim Dunnigan and I, in the 1991 edition of "A Quick and Dirty Guide to War," speculatively redrew Canada's political map.
Here's a thumbnail sketch: Say Quebec becomes a separate European-style nation-state -- a "people" with cultural, linguistic, religious and historical identity (never mind the objections of Mohawk and Cree Indians in Quebec). Quebec has the people and resources to make a go of it, though the economic price for its egotism will be stiff. British Columbia also has "nation-state" assets: access to the sea, strong industrial base, raw materials and an educated population.
Oil-producing Alberta might join the United States and instantly find common political ground with Alaska, Louisiana, Texas and Oklahoma. Canada's struggling Atlantic provinces might find statehood economically attractive and extend the New England coastline. A rump Canada consisting of "Greater Ontario" -- with remaining provinces as appendages -- might keep the Maple Leaf flag aloft. As for poor, isolated Newfoundland: Would Great Britain like to reacquire a North American colony?
Austin Bay is a nationally syndicated columnist.
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 Nathan Fake - Outhouse (Valentino Kanzyani Remix) || ID PLZ! PVD ID!!!
Disco and classical had sex while watching a sci-fi movie. Their child: trance.
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 May-02-2005 06:19 
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ShadoWolf
ISOS
Registered: Apr 2002
Location: State of Trance
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May-02-2005 06:27
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ShadoWolf
ISOS
Registered: Apr 2002
Location: State of Trance
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The West's separatist warning
Poll finds 35% of Westerners think splitting from Canada should be explored
Cathy Gulli
National Post
More than one-third of Westerners younger than 30 think their provinces should consider quitting Canada, showing the strongest support for sovereignty among all ages, a recent poll reveals.
Fully 36.4% of people between 18 and 29 in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba agree "Western Canadians should begin to explore the idea of forming their own country."
The sentiment is not exclusive to youth.
Across all age groups, 35.6% of Westerners favour debating sovereignty.
Albertans lead with 41.9% support, compared to 31.9% in Saskatchewan, 30.8% in British Columbia, and 27.5% in Manitoba.
"Westerners are very frustrated with their position in Confederation," said Faron Ellis, a political science professor at Lethbridge Community College, who conducted the poll for Western Standard magazine.
He warns that, at a time when Canada is not facing a major national crisis, this level of dissatisfaction could be a sign of worse things to come.
''There's really nothing aside from the ongoing institutionalized grievances to be angry about, and for the most part in all four provinces the economy is going fairly well,'' Mr. Ellis said.
''Canadians across the country should be aware that if these are the bedrock levels of frustration without a crisis, the next crisis [will have] Westerners at least debating the concept,'' he added.
Even though most young people were not alive during divisive political crises such as the National Energy Program, "they register among the highest levels of support for discussing independence," Mr. Ellis said.
Mr. Ellis believes young people are aware of both modern and historical difficulties affecting the West.
"They hear from their parents. They hear it daily on the streets. They know about current injustices. When federal issues come up, this group sees themselves outside of the debate, their opinions marginalized," Mr. Ellis said.
Gerald Baier, a University of British Columbia professor of political science, said young people are more likely to support the idea of sovereignty because they are often more open-minded than older generations.
"The question doesn't ask them to state support for the idea of sovereignty but for the idea of exploring it. Why shouldn't you look into all ideas? It might even be a matter of idealism," Mr. Baier added.
The poll also shows 64% of Westerners think Prime Minister Paul Martin is doing a poor job of ending Western alienation.
Another 40.4% say that if the Liberal party wins the next election they will be more in favour of exploring independence.
Mr. Ellis believes these Westerners feel they have exhausted every possible solution to improve their standing in Ottawa, citing the failures of the Reform and Canadian Alliance parties to gain power.
"It's hard for any new party in Canada to do well," Mr. Baier said.
The Western Canada Concept Party registered with Elections Canada 25 years ago with a platform calling for separation of the four Western provinces, but never came close to electing an MP.
Neither have the Separation Party of Alberta or the Western Independence Party of Saskatchewan managed to win more than marginal popular votes in recent years.
Doug Christie, the free speech lawyer for Holocaust deniers Jim Keegstra and Ernst Zundel who co-founded the Western Canada Concept, announced in January the formation of yet another separatist party, the Western Block. Anne McLellan, deputy prime minister at the time, disputed any hopes for this federal party, saying, "I don't think Mr. Christie will find a very welcoming audience in this province, in Newfoundland or anywhere else for his separatist rhetoric," she said.
Bruce Hutton, leader of the Alberta separatist party, told the Western Standard: "One of the things that makes separation a hard sell is that we have to get people to think of the future, not the present, to sell our message."
Despite Western frustration, Mr. Baier said, to voters there "these parties have been perceived as fringe parties."
Mr. Ellis said the dissatisfaction felt among residents of these provinces runs deep, and should be taken seriously.
The poll was conducted by telephone between June 29 and July 5, 2005, and involved 1,448 randomly selected Western residents.
The margin of error was plus or minus 2.6%, 19 times out of 20.
© National Post 2005
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Nathan Fake - Outhouse (Valentino Kanzyani Remix) || ID PLZ! PVD ID!!!
Disco and classical had sex while watching a sci-fi movie. Their child: trance.
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Aug-12-2005 05:58
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ShadoWolf
ISOS
Registered: Apr 2002
Location: State of Trance
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Paul Martin's choice for Governor General is a citizen of a foreign country (France), AND a Quebec separatist.
The Lieberals are destroying Canada.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/serv...Story/National/
Separatist says ‘Come clean, Jean'
By NELSON WYATT
Thursday, August 11, 2005 Updated at 6:47 PM EDT
Canadian Press
Montreal — An outspoken Quebec sovereigntist wants governor-general-designate Michaëlle Jean to say how she voted in the 1995 referendum.
The call comes after an article in a sovereigntist publication that says she and her husband supported Quebec independence and that Ms. Jean's spouse, filmmaker Jean-Daniel Lafond, was friendly with former Quebec terrorists.
“In the nationalist circles, many people were sure that Mme. Jean and her husband were sovereigntists, many persons believed that,” said Gilles Rheaume, president of the Quebec-based organization against Canadian corruption and propaganda and a former president of the Société St-Jean Baptiste.
Mr. Rheaume said Thursday that Prime Minister Paul Martin should have checked Ms. Jean's credentials more carefully and called him “an amateur to name a person who many believe is a sovereigntist, to name this person head of state.”
He has written to Ms. Jean asking how she voted in Quebec's 1995 sovereignty referendum, which federalists won by a razor-thin majority.
“We believe the people of Canada and the people of Quebec have the right to know,” Mr. Rheaume said, although he acknowledged he isn't holding his breath for a reply.
But Transport Minister Jean Lapierre, who co-founded the sovereigntist Bloc Québécois before returning to the Liberals under Mr. Martin, said Ms. Jean was nominated for her strong qualities.
“Madame Jean is not a sovereigntist,” Mr. Lapierre said at a news conference in Laval, north of Montreal.
“If there are old friends who want to trip her up, unfortunately, I hope that she won't consider them any longer as friends,” he said.
“Now the political convictions of her husband will be for her to answer to.”
A spokesman for Ms. Jean referred calls to Mr. Martin's office.
Martin spokesman Scott Reid said Ms. Jean, a well-known broadcaster in Quebec, and Mr. Lafond are committed Canadians who are the victims of a smear campaign.
“To suggest that Mr. Lafond's documentary on the FLQ crisis makes him a separatist sympathizer is to suggest that Ken Burns' documentary on the Civil War makes him a Confederate secessionist,” Mr. Reid said. “It's absurd.
“What is taking place here is nothing more complicated than a smear campaign by hardline separatists who see Mme. Jean's appointment as a threat.
“She has struck a chord across Canada and in Quebec, particularly. And it is sad and ugly and terribly dispiriting that this kind of thing takes place.”
The controversy arose after the release of an article in Le Québécois, the voice of the province's sovereignty watchdogs, said sovereigntists were disappointed by Ms. Jean's appointment as Adrienne Clarkson's replacement in September because Ms. Jean and Mr. Lafond were considered sympathetic to the cause.
It also noted the couple had renovations done to their home library by Jacques Rose, a former member of the Front de liberation du Quebec, who is now a contractor.
Mr. Rose served eight years as an accessory after the fact in the kidnap and murder of provincial cabinet minister Pierre Laporte in the 1970 October Crisis.
Mr. Lafond, who was born in France, met a number of former FLQ members when he worked on the 1994 National Film Board documentary, La Liberté en colere.
He co-wrote the film with Francis Simard, another FLQ member who was given early parole in 1982 after being sentenced to life for his role in killing Mr. Laporte, who was strangled and found in the trunk of an abandoned taxi.
During a visit to Montreal, Conservative Leader Stephen Harper only said Mr. Martin may have some questions to answer about Ms. Jean's appointment.
Jean Dorion, the president of the Société St-Jean Baptiste's Montreal branch, said few people know Ms. Jean's political leanings but “as far as Mr. Lafond is concerned, everything I hear about him is that he was a strong pro-independentiste.”
Mr. Dorion said he believed Mr. Martin is trying to “seduce” parts of Quebec with a twist on the scandal-plagued sponsorship program then-prime minister Jean Chrétien used to promote Canadian unity.
“It's a more sophisticated kind of sponsorship program,” he said. “It's not as gross. In the sponsorship program you also had a few convinced independentistes getting money from the federal government and working for the independentiste movement.
“In this case, it's more subtle, more complicated but it's the same kind of process,” he said. “You know, in Quebec a lot of people work on both sides. It's strange but that's the way it is.”
He cited the case of Quebec sovereigntist entertainers who take advantage of federal funding programs.
Mr. Dorion said Mr. Lafond will likely deny any sovereigntist links but “there is always a doubt that will linger in people's minds.”
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Nathan Fake - Outhouse (Valentino Kanzyani Remix) || ID PLZ! PVD ID!!!
Disco and classical had sex while watching a sci-fi movie. Their child: trance.
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Aug-12-2005 06:01
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