Fur Trading Game / Reading

• Discussion - What were the positive/negative effects of the Fur Trade? What was the impact on the Natives, Europeans, and the Environment?

1976

What is the separatist movement in Canada?

The Quebec sovereignty movement (French: Mouvement souverainiste du Québec) is a political movement as well as an ideology of values, concepts and ideas that advocates independence for the Canadian province of Quebec.

When did Quebec try to separate from Canada?

93.52% of the 5,087,009 registered Quebecers voted in the referendum, a higher turnout than any provincial or federal election in Canada's history. The proposal ofJune 12, 1995 was rejected by voters, with 50.58% voting "No" and 49.42% voting "Yes". The margin was significantly smaller than the 1980 referendum.

Read 'The Separatist Movement' p. 148-149 (see below)

Constitution Act, 1982 (Part of the Canada Act, 1982)

• Includes the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

• Includes the "Notwithstanding clause". This allows the governments to suspend parts of the Charter of Rights for a period of 5 years (at which time it must review the suspension).

• In December 1988, Quebec invoked the Notwithstanding clause related to Bill 178 (its language law).

  • Bill 178 required signage outside stores to be French only even thought that violated Canada's Charter of Rights. (You could not have an English sign in Quebec).

  • In 1993, a report that Bill 178 violated the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights was released by a United Nations human-rights committee.

  • Since then Quebec has allowed French/English signs as long as the French is predominant.

• The Act was signed by 9 of the 10 provinces. The Quebec government has never signed it. Despite this, the Act is legally binding in Canada.

• Why didn't Quebec sign? There is a strong, 'separatist' movement in Quebec, including a strong provincial party that usually makes up the majority of the government members. At the time, this party was in power and did not wish to sign the constitution of Canada (because they don't want to be part of Canada).

• Why do they want to separate? This movement wishes to be their own country, apart from Canada. The main issue is language and culture. They are concerned their French speaking culture is being overshadowed by the majority English speaking culture of Canada. In 1995, there was even a 'referendum' (vote of all the people) in Quebec about whether the people wished to separate. The vote to stay part of Canada won by a very small majority (50.56%). No one knows what would have happened if the majority had wanted to separate -- the vote simply reflected the wishes of the people and was not legally binding. However, in a democratic country like Canada, the wishes of the people have great influence.

1982 -- Are you sure!?

That's right! Up until 1982, Canada didn't have a Constitution. Instead, we had something called the British North America Act. This Act functioned the same way as the Constitution does, but reflected our continuing close ties to Great Britain. Up until 1982, most changes to the British North America Act had to be passed by the parliament of Great Britain.

In 1982, under Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, the Constitution Act was passed. This act did two main things: it added a Charter of Rights and Freedoms and it made the process of changing the constitution something that Canadians could do on their own. It also declared that Canada was a bilingual country. In Canada the two official languages are English and French.

What's the Difference Between a Province and a Territory?

Canada has a constitution - the Constitution Act of 1982. The constitution talks about all sorts of things, like what our official languages are and what our individual rights are. The constitution works together with our system of laws to make up the rules of the country.

The constitution also indicates what provinces are a part of Canada and what the powers of those provinces are. For example, provinces have jurisdiction over education and the environment.

Territories on the other hand are created by Federal Law.

That means the territories have a bit less power than the provinces. They still have representation in the federal government, but don't have provincial governments.

The biggest difference is that the provinces get to vote on changes to the constitution but the territories do not.