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MINISTER DION SAYS AT THE LONDON SCHOOL
OF ECONOMICS THAT PLURAL COLLECTIVE
IDENTITIES ARE AN OPPORTUNITY RATHER
THAN A CONTRADICTION
LONDON (U.K.), May 19, 1998 – The Honourable Stéphane Dion, President
of the Privy Council and Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs, said today at
the London School of Economics that since the end of the Cold War, conflicts
between groups within states have greatly exceeded conflicts between states. The
Minister stated that the unity debate in Canada is "universal in
scope", because "Canadians are now debating what could be the most
important question of the next century: how to enable different populations to
live together within the same country."
The Minister indicated that the compelling idea that should convince citizens
who do not speak the same language or do not have the same cultural references
to stay together is that of plural identities. As for Canada, he stated that his
hope was for every Quebecer to be able to say: "I am a Quebecer and a
Canadian, and I refuse to choose between the two".
Mr. Dion said he wished that, instead of British critics of the creation of
parliaments for Scotland and Wales raising the example of Quebec within Canada
as a danger to national unity, the Canadian example of diversity would be seen
as a strength. "I want countries throughout the world to say: ‘We can
have confidence in our minorities, and allow them to develop in their own way,
because they will make our country stronger, just as Quebec makes Canada
stronger,'" said the Minister.
Mr. Dion was critical of several "false solutions" to the question of
national unity, including assimilation of minorities, forcing populations to
remain in a country against their will, and promoting "internal
separatism" by granting separatist leaders "everything they want
inside the country, hoping that they will lose interest in separating".
The Minister stated that any group which has "a collective identity, as a
people or a nation, must have an autonomy, institutions in which it can
recognize itself. But at the same time, if the concept of plural identities is
to have any meaning, those citizens must also feel that they are members of the
country a whole." Mr. Dion noted that unity requires a balance between
autonomy within a country, on the one hand, and solidarity throughout the
country, on the other.
"In short", stated the Minister, "democracy invites us to help
our fellow citizens who are different from us, and to accept their help, and to
see our sometimes difficult cohabitation as a process of learning a more
complete citizenship that is closer to universal values."
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For information: André Lamarre
Press Secretary
(613) 943-1838
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