Spain’s Catalan crisis holds lessons for Canada

Eliminating ambiguity is essential to avoid dangerous deadlock on secession, William Johnson writes.

Spain is in a mess and there is a lesson there for Canada.

Sunday’s referendum on secession in Catalonia proposed unilateral secession from Spain if a bare majority of the voters declared for independence. That violated both Spain’s constitution, which declares Spain indivisible, and a judgment of Spain’s constitutional court suspending the vote.

Unfortunately, Spain emerged from dictatorship only in 1975, after the death of Francisco Franco. The country has no deeply rooted tradition of the rule of law or of resolving conflicts by negotiation, as in liberal democracies. That was evident on both sides over the past month.

There are nationalists in Quebec who have defended Catalonia’s revolutionary coup and who even offer it as a good example for Quebec. That shows a rejection of the rule of law and a preference for the rule of anarchy. It also shows a lack of appreciation of a fundamental difference between Catalonia and Quebec. Catalonia is small geographically and relatively homogeneous. Quebec, is vast and contains Indigenous nations with their own territories and as much right to self-determination as French Quebec.

In Canada, our record is mixed. Provincial parties in Quebec have long claimed that Quebec enjoys the right to self-determination, including the right to secession. Although the Supreme Court of Canada ruled in 1998 that Quebec does not have a right to unilateral secession, either under Canadian law or international law, thenpremier Lucien Bouchard had the National Assembly pass Bill 99 in 2000, An Act respecting the exercise of the fundamental rights and prerogatives of the Québec people and the Québec State. It claimed Quebec’s unconditional right to secede, its present territory intact, if it obtained the merest majority in a referendum carried out according to rules set by the Quebec government.

The law was challenged by then-Equality Party leader Keith Henderson, and the case was heard in March by Madam Justice Claude Dallaire of Quebec Superior Court. Obviously, the decision will have momentous consequences for all of Canada and will be passionately denounced by some. It will require careful formulation and conclusive argument. The judgment was expected in August; it could come at any time.

It will be a crucial decision for Canada if we are to avoid Spain’s dangerous deadlock.

This past spring, Premier Philippe Couillard published an official document declaring his government’s stance on long-enduring constitutional controversies. It was titled, Quebecers: Our Way of Being Canadians.

The document, in three different statements, affirmed what could only be construed as the right to unconditional secession. Here is one of those affirmations: “Quebec is free to make its choices and able to take control of its destiny and its development. Quebec possesses all the characteristics of a nation and recognizes itself as such. The Quebec nation is made up of a French-speaking majority.”

This totally ignores and contradicts the carefully explained conditions for a legitimate secession spelled out by the Supreme Court of Canada. The court ruled that secession is possible, but that would require amending the Constitution of Canada, and according to the terms for amendment set out in the Constitution Act, 1982. That includes the consent of Parliament and of the other provinces.

It includes recognizing the rights of minorities, notably the Aboriginals. And the court made clear that the new boundaries of a seceding Quebec would be set by negotiations. Clearly, the court had in mind the territories of the Indigenous peoples; the Crees, the Inuit and the Innu voted decisively in three referendums in 1995 that they would not be part of a seceding Quebec.

On an issue as crucial and perilous as secession, no ambiguity or misunderstanding can be entertained. Couillard’s position prepares a future of anarchy, such as now threatens Spain.

May Justice Dallaire’s decision come soon and be decisive for everyone.