
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, May 27, 1990                   TAG: 9005270083
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A17   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: TORONTO                                LENGTH: Short

QUEBEC QUESTION SPARKS CRISIS

Three provincial leaders who reneged on an agreement to recognize French-speaking Quebec as a distinct society have thrown the federal government into crisis, provoking new fears of secession.

Prime Minister Brian Mulroney was spending the weekend in intense one-on-one conferences with the provincial premiers, hoping to salvage what is known as the Meech Lake agreement before the June 23 deadline.

Quebec refused to sign Canada's 1982 constitution. To win its support, Mulroney and all 10 premiers signed a five-point amendment at Meech Lake, near Ottawa, in 1987, and set a three-year deadline for ratification by the provincial legislatures.

But the governments changed in Newfoundland, Manitoba and New Brunswick and the new premiers balked.

The agreement's most troublesome point for many opponents - and virtually the only one the public remembers - would define Quebec as a "distinct society" from the rest of Canada, to protect its French language and culture.

Quebec Premier Robert Bourassa has repeated that while he is willing to consider further discussion, Quebec will accept no changes to the agreement signed three years ago. - Associated Press

by CNB