Quebec separatist call as Queen arrives

Press, 17 April 1982, Page 8

Quebec separatist call as Queen arrives

NZPA-Reuter Ottawa' The Premier of Quebec (Mr Rene Levesque) called yesterday for the creation of a new country soon in, his mainly French-speaking province. He was speaking on tele- < vision just three hours after the Queen arrived for ceremonies tomorrow proclaiming a new Canadian Constitution. She was given a warm, colourful welcome led by the Prime Minister (Mr Pierre Trudeau), a Quebecer dedicated to keeping the province within Canada, and her Canadian representative, the Governor-General (Mr Ed Schreyer). - Mr Levesque said it was up to Quebec to reject the new. constitutional deal because it would weaken the province and’increase the powers of Mr Trudeau’s central Government, "It's time for us to decide,

before it’s too late, to affirm our majority position in Quebec,” he said. “It’s time to decide that this Quebec should belong to us not only as a home constantly under threat, but as a country, a real country, where we will be truly at home.” Mr Levesque is the only one of the 10 provincial Premiers to reject the new Constitution,, which is based on a century-old British law and includes reforms worked out last year in a series of bitter conferences with Mr Trudeau. He is boycotting tomorrow’s gala proclamation ceremonies in Ottawa, proposing instead to" lead a protest march in Montreal, Quebec’s biggest city. - Although Mr Levesque called for action soon on the Quebec independence issue, he did not mention specific steps. .His party’s plans-call for some form of independence, with continued econo-

mic ties to Canada, to be the top issue in the next provincial election in about three years. Federal officials were deciding whether to respond to Mr Levesque’s attack on the constitutional reforms, which Mr Trudeau sees as the key to the future of the federation. The centrepieces of the Constitution are a charter of rights and an all-Canadian amending formula, ending a legal anachronism by which Britain had to continue passing major constitutional changes for its fully independent former colony. Britain did this for the last time earlier, this year when it passed a law inserting the • new reforms at Canada's re- ' quest before sending the Constitution to Ottawa. The Queen will end the process tomorrow, complet- ’ ing independence achieved 51 years ago, in the highlight of her first visit to Canada in four years.