If I understand correctly, Trudeau is not particularly keen, at least for this mandate, to open the Constitution unless he has to, yet everyone knows our flawed Constitution will need to be opened sooner or later.
What we can do in the meantime though is collect information on the matter that any future government can use to inform any future revision to the Constitution.
On the matter of religion, the separate school system has already been criticized by the UN for violating the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
On the matter of language policy, official bilingualism was raised on the recommendations of Book I of the B&B Commission (published in 1967 at the height of the residential school era and at the time of the Sixties scoop) which were raised on the belief in 'two founding races' which the Commission defined as 'Canadians of British and French origin' apart from 'the other ethnic groups' and to the explicit explosion of 'the Indians and the Eskimos' with no mention of the Deaf, dyslexics, and others who may lack the necessary aptitude to learn a more difficult langage throughout its 5-volume report.
Book III if I remember correctly had also mentioned that thegovernment's goal was to completely 'integrate' the indigenous peoples into the provincial system, so clearly the government had in mind that official bilingualism would merely be an extension of its assimilation policy.
This should not be surprising when even the composition of the B&B Commission w as ethnically determined: an equal number of commissioners representing English Canadians, two co-commissioners, one English, one French, one new English Canadian (he was Ukrainian) and one new French Canadian.
We should establish a Royal Commission on Religion and Language to re-examine the ethnic prejudices that lead to these two institutions and to reduce the prejudices of the previous commission, ensure the Chairman be an economist by profession (preferably with a specialization in language economics), that at least one Commissioner have a degree in linguistics (preferably with a specialization dealing with deafness, dyslexia, and other such matters in second-language learning), and one with a degree in education (again preferably with a specialization in deaf, dyslexic, or other such matters in second-language learning). Alternatively, we could ensure at least one commissioner know a sign language and one a Canadian indigenous language, to make appropriate recommendations to revise the religious and linguistic provisions of the constitution.
This would give any future government that decides to reopen the Constitution a new valuable thoroughly researched source of information to inform its decisions during negotiations rather than going in relying on a half-century old series of books filled with bigotry.
What we can do in the meantime though is collect information on the matter that any future government can use to inform any future revision to the Constitution.
On the matter of religion, the separate school system has already been criticized by the UN for violating the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
On the matter of language policy, official bilingualism was raised on the recommendations of Book I of the B&B Commission (published in 1967 at the height of the residential school era and at the time of the Sixties scoop) which were raised on the belief in 'two founding races' which the Commission defined as 'Canadians of British and French origin' apart from 'the other ethnic groups' and to the explicit explosion of 'the Indians and the Eskimos' with no mention of the Deaf, dyslexics, and others who may lack the necessary aptitude to learn a more difficult langage throughout its 5-volume report.
Book III if I remember correctly had also mentioned that thegovernment's goal was to completely 'integrate' the indigenous peoples into the provincial system, so clearly the government had in mind that official bilingualism would merely be an extension of its assimilation policy.
This should not be surprising when even the composition of the B&B Commission w as ethnically determined: an equal number of commissioners representing English Canadians, two co-commissioners, one English, one French, one new English Canadian (he was Ukrainian) and one new French Canadian.
We should establish a Royal Commission on Religion and Language to re-examine the ethnic prejudices that lead to these two institutions and to reduce the prejudices of the previous commission, ensure the Chairman be an economist by profession (preferably with a specialization in language economics), that at least one Commissioner have a degree in linguistics (preferably with a specialization dealing with deafness, dyslexia, and other such matters in second-language learning), and one with a degree in education (again preferably with a specialization in deaf, dyslexic, or other such matters in second-language learning). Alternatively, we could ensure at least one commissioner know a sign language and one a Canadian indigenous language, to make appropriate recommendations to revise the religious and linguistic provisions of the constitution.
This would give any future government that decides to reopen the Constitution a new valuable thoroughly researched source of information to inform its decisions during negotiations rather than going in relying on a half-century old series of books filled with bigotry.