BRIDGEWATER UNITY MEETING
Thursday, January 15, 1998

Large Turnout from Lunenburg County

(Halifax, January 21, 1998)           The Nova Scotia Special Committee on National Unity has wrapped up its hearings today as part of a Canada-wide consultation process on the Calgary Declaration. uni.ca attended 11 meetings in total. We present here some of our notes from the Bridgewater, Nova Scotia meeting.

          15 groups were heard, with a wide range of views on the Calgary Declaration, which is the latest round of efforts to keep Canada united in the face of a separatist régime in Quebec.

          Some groups commented on the Declaration itself. Others created a linkage between issues like empowering municipalities, or improving social programmes, and unity. Most who spoke favoured the Declaration, with a couple exceptions.

Eleanor Norrie Committee Chair

          Suggestions abounded:

• Add a "Canada is indivisible" clause to the Constitution.
• dump the notwithstanding clause in the Charter
• further decentralize the federation
• expand the Terry Fox Centre
• revive the Open House Canada student exchange
• twin schools across the country
• initiate teacher exchanges
• more French immersion

          Many just wished to vent their frustrations. One gentleman suggested Nova Scotia consider "charting our own course" after a dissertation on Nova Scotia's regional grievances - from Joseph Howe to the present. Another presenter was annoyed that her grocery store bags in northern New Brunswick used to be in English and French, and now they are just in French. She held up examples that she found in the trunk of her car.

          The Tai-Foo Warriors, so named because of their meetings in the local Tai Foo restaurant, gave an excellent presentation on their group's endeavours. They initiated a student exchange in 1997 which was successful. They also meet and trade books - dozens so far - to discuss at upcoming meetings. Chairman Andy Fulton gave an historical presentation on French Canada's relationship with the rest of the country. Following that, he outlined their suggestions, which included a more serious look at asymetrical federalism, questioning our preocupation with national referenda, and a balanced, Plan A and Plan B approach.

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Ron Russell

UL: Can you summarize for us what this has meant to you as a Canadian, have you changed your mind on anything about the country? RR: It impressed me that we need more education about the history of this country, of Quebec, and of this province. I think that there's a lack of knowledge of things that have occurred in other provinces that are affecting the present.

Ron Russell, MLA Unity Committee Member

 

UL: Is the Calgary Declaration going to fly? RR: I can't answer that. In fact we have agreed about that, because we haven't heard from everybody. We came into this as far as we thought we could, completely unaligned with the Declaration itself.

Andy Fulton

UL: What the heck is a Tai Foo Warrior? AF: A Tai Foo Warrior is a whole bunch of us who meet at the Tai Foo Restaurant in Bridgewater, which is a Chinese Restaurant. This is a place where we meet and go into a room every Tuesday. There are 12 of us who were in the armed forces. It was really for unity that we came together. The Tai Foo people started to say "Ah! the Tai Foo Warriors!" so there you are!

Andy Fulton Youth Exchange, Book Club

 

UL: You mentioned in your presentation before the Committee that you have changed your opinion on Canada through this process. Can you tell us how? AF: The big change was being accommodating to Quebec. In other words, understanding a lot more about the history between the 2 groups - why they are collective, why they look at the whole rather than the individual. When you see what happened in 1982, for example, one of the reasons they wouldn't sign, was because if they accepted the Charter, then they'd be inhibited from protecting their language. And of course, they also tell us that the Supreme Court was largely English (3 French Canadians and 6 from the ROC) and when they looked on Bill 101, the Supreme Court said no because of the Charter. So they had to use the notwithstanding clause. When we looked at all that, we realized that we didn't understand them all that well. Now that doesn't mean to say that we shouldn't have a Plan B, where we say if you separate this is what we're going to do, but the main thrust should be to say hey look, let's get into accommodation here, so you can do what you wish to within Canada. We can go back to our original compact with them, and say "Look, that still stands!"

 

UL: What is it about Lunenburg County, NS? This has been the Committee's biggest meeting. Why all the unity groups out here? AF: I don't know. I can't speak for the others, but I know there's another group in Lunenburg who are retired as well, who are also interested in it. Since we're retired we have more time, and Canada is very precious to us. So we wanted to get some ideas. I think all the activity is a great thing. We should be able to use the Internet to get these ideas around, too.