Rose-coloured view of Bourassa

Montreal Gazette
Friday, October 05, 2001

John Parisella's trip down Bourassa memory lane is somewhat bewildering (Comment, Oct. 2, "Remembering Robert Bourassa"). My memories of Mr. Bourassa are unfavourable. Have we forgotten how in the 1970s Robert Bourassa passed Bill 22, which denied freedom of education to Quebec immigrants, suffocated the English school-board system and made Quebec's official language French, which went against the Canadian constitution?

Do we not remember it was Mr. Bourassa's Liberals who gave birth to the language police?

Was it not Mr. Bourssa's government that in the 1980s did nothing to repeal discriminatory subsections of the Parti Québécois's Bill 101, which went against the Canadian and Quebec charters of rights, the BNA act and international treaties that Canada had signed?

Do we not recall it was Mr. Bourassa who gave us the so-called green Hydro projects, with the unforgettable slogan of "you can't eat the fish for 20 years?"

Was it not Mr. Bourassa who gave us the Bill 178, the Quebec sign law that abrogated fundamental rights?

And was it not Mr. Bourassa and the Liberals who sponsored the Belanger-Campeau Report in 1991 and Bill 150 in 1992 in support of Quebec's unilateral secession from Canada?

It's easy for Mr. Parisella to sit back with rosey glasses on remembering the good old days while 500,000 English Quebecers and hundreds of head offices had to leave Quebec for greener pastures because of inequality, instability and discrimination.

Jimmy Kalafatidis

President of the Equality Party

Montreal