Justin: Good Morning Mr. Vanderzam.
Mr. Vanderzam: Good morning.
Justin: My name is Justin Shauf.
Mr. Vanderzam: Justin?
Justin: Yes...I have a few questions to ask you. Do you feel that
Quebec should have recognition as a distinct society?
Mr. Vanderzam: No, I don't believe so. I think every province should be
treated equally and unfortunately, that would not only
create inequality, but also division amongst our people. I
don't believe it is good for the Country to give a special
status or another status to any one group in our society.
Justin: Thank you.
Chris: Hello Mr. Vanderzam.
Mr. Vanderzam: Yes.
Chris: My name is Chris.
Mr. Vanderzam: Hi Chris.
Chris: Do you feel that there should be changes made to the current Quebec
language laws?
Mr. Vanderzam: Well I think Quebec should have it's own say as to what it
is they do with respect to language laws. You know
personally I'm of the view that the country should
be universally English but that within every province
decisions might be made provincially as to how it is
they deal with language questions. I don't think that
it is necessarily conflicting, I think it could be done.
So if Quebec wants to have a greater French pressence in
it's language, writing, etc. I don't think there is
anything wrong with allowing them or giving them the
entitlement to this, but I think nationally we ought
to be moving more to one language, I think that is
unifying and I think that's good for the country.
Chris: So do you think that Quebec was justified in enacting the
"notwithstanding" clause of the Charter to protect their
french language?
Mr. Vanderzam: Well they were definitely justified because when the
constitutional changes were made back in 1982, the
provincial Premiers collectively even in the absence
of Quebec decided there needed to be a
"Notwithstanding clause" obviously for reasons. The
reason being I think that it would allow a province
to do something provincially that might not be done
nationally. They were definitely within their rights
to do it. It was provided for constitutionally that
there be a "notwithstanding" clause so they used it.
There is nothing wrong with that.
Tiffany: Good morning Mr. Vanderzam.
Mr. Vanderzam: Good morning.
Tiffany: My name is Tiffany Palmer.
Mr. Vanderzam: Hi.
Tiffany: My question is...Can Canadians grant Quebec's requests
without jeopardizing the future of Canada?
Mr. Vanderzam: Can who?
Tiffany: Canadians.
Mr. Vanderzam: Can Canadians grant...?
Tiffany: Quebec's requests without jeopardizing the future of Canada?
Mr. Vanderzam: As a matter of fact again I am of the view I suppose that's
what it is we are talking about here, we have various views
on this particular topic, but I am of the view that there
ought to be greater provincial economies. We need to be
more of a conferation than a federation, I think we are a
very large country. We differ from East to West somewhat...
no doubt on a variety of issues. I don't think we can
survive economically if we continue to try to treat every
area, every region, every community identical. So Quebec
has certain thoughts or ideas or desires to do something or
take on certain powers unto themselves because they believe
it's better for their people then I think they ought to be
given that right but that right should then be extended to
every province throughout the country.
Selena: Good morning Mr. Vanderzam.
Mr.Vanderzam: Good morning.
Selena: My name is Selena Jacobs.
Mr. Vaderzam: Hi.
Selena: How do you interpret the results of the failed Meech Lake
and Charlottetown Accords?
Mr. Vanderzam: I interpret that to mean that people of Canada are really
frustrated and fed up with having politicians making
decisions about them and they not having any or much
input into the process. I think Meech Lake and more
especially the Charlottetown Accords were a good
lesson for people in Government today. People...
Canadians are looking to change the system which
will allow them to have a greater say in the decisions
made effecting them. That's the message I get out of
The Meech Lake and Charlottetown Accords is we need to
change the system to allow the people a greater say.
We have a constitution in Canada which was developed
totally and that has given us problems and we need to
devise means by which peole can be more involved than
what we saw in the past.
Tiffany: Good morning Mr. Vanderzam.
Mr. Vanderzam: Hi.
Tiffany: My name is Tiffany Burgess. My question is...Are the
demands that were presented during the Meech Lake and
Charlottetown Accords already being put into practice
in Quebec? And if you think so, do they need to be
formally worded in the consitution?
Mr. Vanderzam: I think the Constitutin of Canada is the most
important document for the country. I think it's
unfortunate that our constitution was really developed
and devised by Politicians as opposed to the people as
we saw in the U.S. as in so many other countries. I
think the consititution is being toyed with again by
the native treaties that are being negoiciated in B.C.
which will be included in the constitution as a change
without the people having a say in it once more. The
whole of the consititution should be re-done. If
Canadians wanted to do the country a big service they
should demand the Constitution "By the people for the
people". Quebec is doing some things I guess that might
be debatable as to wether they are provided for
consitutionally or not, but I don't think there's any
major infractions in that regard at all. I don't
disagree much with what Quebec is doing or what it is
they are trying to do and as someone sitting way on the
other coast thousands of miles away, I don't think I am
a good judge as to what is best for the people of the
province themselves that is for them distinctly Quebec.
It's not a matter of the rest of the country granting
them some distincitions, it's them deciding for
themselves. Little confusing I'm afraid, but hopefully
you will get the point.
Phillip: Mr. Vanderzam, my name is Phillip Gleim, I'm the principal
of the School.
Mr. Vanderzam: Hi Phillip.
Phillip: Anything else that you would like to say on this topic that
the students haven't addressed?
Mr. Vanderzam: Well, I guess you can gather from my responses
that I feel very strongly about us needing systematic
change in the country and I am very happy to see much
project taking place in Saskatchewan, the center of the
country, maybe you can just take this one step further
and get schools elsewhere invloved because it's so
important that we develop for ourselves a Canadian
constitution. In B.C. we are now talking about a B.C.
constitution and you know if we keep doing that across
the country we keep sort of acting unilaterally because
we don't have a good proper and people formulated
Canadian Constitution. We will always be one against
another, divided we'll not have unity, and that will
cost us socially and economically.
Phillip: On behalf of everyone involved with this project and
particularily the staff and students of Coronach
school, Mr. Vanderzam, I would like to thank you
for your time this morning.
Mr. Vanderzam: Thank you very much.
Mr. Glaspey: The students of history 30 have come together to
create a few questions to deal with the issue of Quebec
without confederation, and specifically Meech Lake and
Charlottetown. And without furter adieu, I'll have the
students introduce themselves and then ask you their
prepared questions, and listen for your answers.
Thank you.
Mr. Dion: Okay.
Justin: Good afternoon.
Mr. Dion: Afternoon.
Justin: My name is Justin Shauf.
Mr. Dion: Justin?
Justin: Yeah.
Mr. Dion: Kay, okay Justin.
Justin: My question is...Do you feel that Quebec should have
recognition as a distinct society?
Mr. Dion: Okay Justin, you may know that last year, all
provincial leaders but Quebec had decided to support
the Calgary Declaration, where the Quebec society
is recognized with its unique character, and I think
this is now the way we want to recongnize the obvious
fact that in Quebec we have a situation that is different
from elsewhere in Canada, and this is a great asset
for all Canadians.
Justin: Should any other groups be allowed privileges as
a distinct society?
Mr. Dion: What we need is a federation flexible enough to accommodate
and address the concerns and the needs of every group in
Canada, every community, and that's why in the Calgary
Declaration we also have recognition of other realities
in Canada, as the fact that we have various communities
in the country, a multi-cultural country, a country where
aboriginal people have their rights, and we recognize
all this in the Calgary Declaration. What is very important
say thoughis that any matter that would come to Quebec
because the recognition of Quebec, as a society with
a unique character, would be available for every other
province, and then we are sure that we have
recognition of the differences in the country, recognition
of the equality as well.
Justin: Thank you.
Mr. Dion: Thank you.
Chris Reed: Hello Mr. Dion. My name is Chris Reed.
Mr. Dion: Your name is?
Chris Reed: Chris Reed.
Mr. Dion: Okay, how are you?
Chris Reed: I'm good. Do you feel that there should be changes
made to the current Quebec language laws?
Mr. Dion: What I think is that we have to improve our capacity to have
a bilingual country, to improve our capacity to make sure
that the next generation of Canadians will be the most
bilingual in the history of the country, that you will have
access to the French language and the French culture, and it
is the same in Quebec for French Quebeckers, and its why the
Canandian government is so strongly supporting the Canada
Language Act. It's why we have increased the funding for
legislation in Quebec. The courts have ruled a lot of
decisions that have made this law the law for protecting
the French in Quebec more acceptable. But it is
certainly acceptable to have a law that says French is
necessary. The French must be there but don't banish the
other languages. This is the kind of improvement we need.
Chris Reed: Do you feel that Quebec was justified in enacting the
"notwithstanding clause" of the Charter to protect their
French language?
Mr. Dion: Yeah, I guess the speaking about what happened in 1988 about
the commercial sign decision. Is that the point?
Chris: Yes I believe so.
Mr. Dion: OK, no, no, I think this has been a big mistake by the
Quebec government at the time. I think that the
ruling of the court was very good saying that you need
to see French but you don't need to banish other
languages. The Premier at the time, Premier Bourassa,
made a mistake. A few years after he recognized that,
he decided to change the law. Now the law in
Quebec is in concordance with the ruling of the
court and this is great.
Chris: Thank you.
Mr. Dion: My pleasure.
Tiffany: Good afternoon Mr. Dion.
Mr. Dion: Good afternoon. And your name is?
Tiffany: Pardon.
Mr. Dion: What is your name?
Tiffany: Tiffany Palmer.
Mr. Dion: Oh, how are you?
Tiffany: I'm good, how are you?
Mr. Dion: Fine.
Tiffany: Can Canadians grant Quebec's request's without jeopardizing
the future of Canada?
Mr. Dion: Oh no, I'm sure that the answer to the question is yes,
because Quebeckers and other Canadians share the same
values, the same principles, the same respect and when we
don't listen to nasty voices, the red necks outside Quebec
and the blue necks in Quebec, if you are allowing me to
describe it like this. We see that both populations need
to stay together and to work together to improve the
country. We may have disagreements. We don't agree all the
time and by the way your province is not always in
accordance with other provinces too, but, we need
to stay together to have mutual help, mutual assistance so
there is solidarity between Canadians.
Tiffany: Thank you.
Mr. Dion: Ok.
Selena: Good afternoon Mr. Dion, my name is Selena Jacobs.
Mr. Dion: Alena?
Selena: Selena.
Mr. Dion: O.K., How are you?
Selena: Good...How do you interpret the resluts of the failed Meech
Lake and Charlottetown accords?
Mr. Dion: It is difficult to have constitutional change in any country
in the world especially when you try and have a big package
like Charlottetown. Each time that someone sees something
that he or she doesn't like, we vote again. If we don't
have to come to conclusions just because we had some
failures about our constitutional changes, our country is
a failure this is a mistake to see things like that. Canada
is a success we have disagreements we may fail in some
attempts but at the end of the day this country is great.
If you ask the Americans for instance, to change their
old constitution and to start to rewrite a new one and then
you ask them to have unanimity rule like in Canada we have
the necessity to have the support of ten provinces in the
states you would have the support of 50 states plus the
White House, plus the congress. Ah...it would be impossible
for them to do nothing and anyway nobody said the other states
must collapse so Saskatchewan was supporting Meech, it failed
because Manitoba and Newfoundland were not in support. It's
too bad. Charlottetown failed too because it was a package
too complicated to understand but it is not a reason to come
to the conclusion that Quebeckers and other Canadians must
sucede and must split. This is a big mistake. What we want
to do now in order to improve the country is to go step by
step to take each province one after the other and I think
that the Jean Cretien way to work and this is a good way to
work.
Selena: Thank you.
Tiffany: Good afternoon Mr. Dion.
Mr. Dion: Good afternoon.
Tiffany: My name is Tiffany.
Mr. Dion: Hi Tiffany, my name is Stephan.
Tiffany: Ok, my question is...Are the demands that were presented
during the Meech Lake and Charlottetown Accords already
being put into practice in Quebece?
Mr. Dion: Or in Canada in some ways yes, it depends on what you are
speaking about in Meech, you had various propositions.
One is the famous distinct society clause, do you know
one former chief justince of the supreme court now is
late? Late Judge Dickson, said that when he was a judge
of the supreme court, he was obviously taking into account
the fact that Quebec is a distinct society otherwise it
would be unfair for the people that are living there to not
take into account the specific situation in which they are.
So even though it is not in teh constitution, it is
something that is already taken into account in order to be
fair. If you look at the other provinces what about vetos,
now Quebec has their veto's, the prairies have their veto's,
the British Columbia, Ontario, and the east part of the country,
Atlantic Canada too. So this is in a way something that is already
done. There was also something about the way federal
governments spends its money in provincial jurisdiction.
Now we have the social unision framework that goes even further
then that about the limitation of the federal spending power
in order to use it with the support of the provices. So
you see, when you look at what the Prime Minister has done,
you see that he has made that step by step without the
psychological drama of great constitutional changes but the
country is improving for everyone.
Tiffany: Thank you. Mr. Dion, is there any statement that you would like
to make that has not been addressed by our questions?
Mr. Dion: No, except maybe that you are fortunate enough to have a course
of history. History is very important. It is something that
we must improve in this country, we have the capacity for you
to know the history of your country for you to know the way
other Canadians see history. For instance, Quebeckers. What
kind of history they learn with their professors. It is very
important because we have a great country. Canada is one of the
best in the world when you think that we are a democracy since
the beginning of the 19th century while so many of the countries
are waiting to become democracies. Canada made great achievement
as a good citizen of the world, and I hope you will have an
opportunity to learn that as a Canadian.