Backstory.  Once upon a time, a Canadian Prime Minister tried to break up the country.  Much later he was also found to have taken $300,000 in cash from a lobbyist, lied about it, and evaded taxes.  But we didn't know that yet, and too many followed him for too long, too close to destruction.

In 1984, when the Conservative party won their first Canadian national majority in twenty-six years, mainly by defeating the Liberals in their stronghold of Quebec, by accepting the help of the province's separatist political organizations.

Three years later, the Prime Minister tried to make payment, surprising the country by getting easy agreement from the provincial Premiers on a set of constitutional amendments by giving away national powers, and including one declaring Quebec a "distinct society" and mandating the rest of the constitution take this into account.  This last amendment could only have one legal outcome, giving powers uniquely to Quebec, until the country fell apart quickly in rancor, or dissolved more slowly as other provinces demanded the same devolutions and the nation broke into regions with little voice in the world.

If just a power give-away, it might have worked.  However, the distinct society amendment also affected the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, developed from extensive national discussions, and included with patriation of the constitution from Britain in 1982.  The Charter would become the leading model for constitutional protection of individual rights around the world within a couple decades.  However, it was already rebalancing the legal landscape and Quebecers were as proud of it as the rest of Canada, even though their governments had still not formally signed the constitution, and had used its renewable "notwithstanding clause" to override the Charter more than once to promote French over other languages.

However, substance has gravity, and the Charter has great substance.  In the end, it was really the attempt to override the universal rights of the Charter that caused the deal to fail, since the Charter drew so much political support from the citizens whose rights it guaranteed, across all regions and languages and origins.

As opposition rose, and provincial legislatures delayed passage, the Prime Minister raised the stakes, betting all or nothing, declaring that disagreement with the distinct society amendment could only mean intolerance of Quebec.  Therefore, if the amendment did not pass, naturally Quebec would be so insulted it would separate right away.  At his lowest, he actually tore a copy of the constitution in half at a press conference to demonstrate his threat.

Strength of principle was already surprisingly strong to defend the Charter.  This new accusation - the country outside Quebec was so deeply bigoted that only constitutional division could make up for it - was a deep misreading of the country, and so unfair it greatly increased opposition.

The Problem.  And to anyone that had lived both east of Quebec and west of Ontario, it was clear it was not going to work.  The "rest of Canada" did not agree with the assumption.  It was culturally allergic to the idea.  And in truth, the only anger about French Canada that I have ever heard has been limited to the separatists in Quebec.  In Alberta I heard uncounted jokes about Ukrainians, and in New Brunswick about Newfoundlanders, but never about French Canada.  Of all the fights to pick and try to make stick, this was the least well advised.

And it could never have worked.  There is not one other Canada, or two or twenty.  The nation is too big, too diverse, a world of cultures from sea to sea to sea.  There isn't an "other" there.  Canada was and is a new-world federation, and special treatment for any one group was fundamentally incompatible with the cold-forged commitment to fairness that had developed to balance that diversity.

And the real tragedy was the loss of opportunity to build on the enormous store of goodwill in the country to nurture French Canada, always there, however at its height since 1980 when Quebec voted against separation.  Canada was willing and acting to support French language and culture across the nation.  And this all-or-nothing bet wasted this, and actually tried to turn it into its opposite, an intolerance large enough to require the deepest amends.

And unfortunately most of the national political class and media was backing the strategy up.  There was a complacency, a sense that any attachment to the Charter could be ignored, an elite consensus that different views could only mean bigotry.  And, in any case, the threat was ratcheted so high that the citizenry would have to give in.  Denial of the coming failure was nearly absolute.

Communication.  So what could a graduate student in Fredericton, New Brunswick, do?  I tried to balance the message with some truth.  No-one was telling Quebecers the strategy was certain to fail, but the reasons were the opposite of what they were hearing.  The Quebec media was vibrant but on this issue in lock-step, with little presence outside the province.  And the Internet was still mostly unknown!  So I wrote a letter to the editor, sent it to all three major Quebec newspapers, and copied to half a dozen English papers east and west.

The letter was not expected to change course or minds, just to add facts to the conversation, so propaganda could be seen to be untrue.  It was intended to communicate, before the amendments failed, that an assumed intolerance was not just untrue, the concept itself was a non-starter in the rest of Canada.

Epilogue.  In the end, the country rejected the amendments, and a second attempt in a national referendum, unanimously by all provinces and territories and first nations.  However, damage was significant.  A second Quebec referendum on separation was held and narrowly lost.  The province elected non-federalist governments and separatist blocs to the national legislature for many years.

The corner may not have been turned until the 2013 Quebec election.  At the start of the election, the separatist party was soft-pedaling separation, and expected to win a majority.  However, a poll on reaction in the rest of Canada if Quebec did vote to separate was then published, with depressing results summarized as equivalent to "ready to help pack the bags".  Blackmail was suddenly discredited.  A few weeks later, the federalist party won a majority in the Quebec election.

Today, from what I have seen, the center in Quebec today is a confident, new world, bilingual internationalism. The lost opportunity to build something better can still be felt.  However, Canada is still a great country, and Quebec still a great province.  The stronger nation we should be is still ready to be forged into self-awareness by a leadership able to realize the opportunity.  Hope springs eternal!