The Marxist Quarterly Autumn 1965

IT IS NOW over two years since the Federal Government, by appointing the Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism, signalled its recognition of a critical situation in the state structure of Canada; and, by the terms of reference it bestowed on the Commission, made crystal-clear the Pearsonian intention of obscuring the real issue and evading its solution.*

What has happened since?

1. French Canadians' assertion of their demand for a changed relationship between the two national communities, for recognition of the right of self determination, for full control over their own national State, has become more vigorous and explicit.

2. The B-B Commission's Preliminary Report -- “an eyewitness report on the Canadian crisis” -- both vividly mirrored the conflicting views held by Canadians from coast to coast, and almost indicated some fleeting glimmers of recognition of the real character of the problem.

3. Anglo-Canadian reactions to the crisis have been mixed: in some areas (especially in the West) a hardening in comprehension, reinforcement of prejudice, and vehement rejection of the very idea of any structural change; in others, an incipient recognition of the reality, signs of some readiness to envisage the evident need for a recasting of the Canadian constitution.

There is at the same time some faint indication of more lively awareness of the evils of discrimination against minority groups, especially against the Indian people (the militant demonstration by Indians in Edmonton against abominable conditions played its part in this).

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*Cf. "Crisis of Confederation"; a special issue of THE MARXIST QUARTERLY. Autumn 1963.

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4. In federal-provincial relations, the demand that Quebec assume the status of a French-Canadian national State has become increasingly explicit -- as, for instance, in the matter of treaty-making powers and relations with foreign states. At the same time, the issues of medicare, pensions, natural resources (including offshore rights) and economic planning bring into sharper focus the unresolved conflicts between all-Canadian socio-economic needs and a federal-provincial structure that obstructs their achievement, possible only through bi-national co-operation on terms of equality.

5. While the leadership of organized labor in English Canada has yet to face up to the implications of the national question, its urgency is underlined by two developments in Quebec: the disastrous consequences of the internecine struggle between CLC and CNTU; and the growing interweaving of national and class aspects in the strike movement there. Meanwhile, socialist currents are making headway, and the influence of the Quebec Left was perceptible in the deliberations of the New Democratic Party convention in July. Following on the establishment of the Comité de Co-ordination des Groupes de Gauche, the projected constitution of the Parti Communiste du Quebec may be counted on to give fresh emphasis not only to the fusing of national democratic and working-class initiatives, but to the theme of working-class unity for a new Constitution, for full national equality in Canada.

6. Questions of social theory -- economic, political, cultural ethnographic --are being posed and their ramifications probed, in relation to the national question in Canada, with some fresh approaches and on an extended scale. The research projects launched by the B-B Commission will in all likelihood represent a major contribution to our knowledge; a number of other significant works have appeared recently that merit study and will evoke debate. (See, elsewhere in this issue, “Questions in Dispute”.)

7. The “Canadian crisis” is by no means insulated from its world context. The Civil Rights revolution in the United States has had no small influence north of the border: both in stimulating actions of support and solidarity (especially on the part of youth, students, church people) and in accenting the issue of equality of peoples which is (for all the differences in specifics) a common

CRISIS OF THE CANADAS 3

denominator for both countries. The blatant intervention of U.S. imperialism in the Dominican Republic, and its horrendous move to full-scale war in Vietnam, both underline the issue of the right of self-determination; while in the latter instance it threatens the world with Armageddon. The need is recognition, in deed as in word, of the vital interconnection of the struggle for peace and the struggle against imperialist oppression—for peaceful coexistence and for national equality, self-determination and democracy.

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In the pages that follow, our contributors deal with some of the areas of concern suggested here; the materials (published here for the first time in English) by French-Canadian socialists form a valuable part of the unfolding discussion on the Left concerning Canada's—and Quebec's—destiny.

This issue of our Quarterly was prepared before the federal election was called, and its distibution will still be under way after it is over. The Editors feel, however, that the material it contains will contribute to the continuing debate on Confederation and Canadian unity which is a major theme of the electoral argument; and to the widening of that discussion among Socialists, Communists, nationalists and democrats, whose unity of thought and action will be crucial for the re-orientation of the direction of Canada's affairs that is the key to finding a new basis for Canadian Confederation.

As with our "Crisis of Confederation" issue of two years ago, we invite our readers to comment, to criticize, to discuss. . . .









 

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-- This OCR was prepared by Kathleen Moore in August 2014 for the legal research purposes of Habeas Corpus Canada. --