1982-Present Canadian Identity Task

The Meech Lake Accord was a package of proposed additional amendments to add to the Constitution of Canada, which was negotiated in 1987 by Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, and the ten premiers of Canada. These amendments were created with the intent of convincing the Quebec government to endorse the 1982 constitutional amendment and increase civilian support in Quebec to remain a part of Canada. Mulroney vowed to end the bitterness between Quebec and the rest of Canada over the constitution. In 1987, he gathered the ten premiers and began a meeting in Meech Lake, Quebec. During this meeting, Prime Minister Mulroney, along with the premiers thought out a new constitutional agreement which became known as the Meech Lake Accord- an agreement between the provincial and federal governments to amend the constitution by strengthening provincial powers and labeling Quebec as a “distinct society”. Furthermore, future changes to federal institutions, such as Senate, the Supreme Court, or the creation of new provinces, would require Ottawa as well as the 10 other provinces to agree. The federal government and everyone of the ten provinces had to approve the Meech Lake Accord within a three year time limit (June 23rd, 1990), or the agreement would be dead. Since Manitoba, New Brunswick, and Newfoundland and Labrador had elected new governments after 1987, their premiers had not attended the Meech Lake talks, and they wanted further changes made to the accord. As time was running out with the three years, Manitoba and Newfoundland and Labrador had still not ratified the agreement. The accord had ignored the rights of the Indigenous nations, and the government was too determined to pass the accord without the Indigenous rights being present on paper. Since Manitoba was one of the provinces that had not ratified the agreement, Elijah Harper, an Aboriginal member of the Manitoba Legislature, stopped the legislature from debating and voting on this issue. He argued that the accord didn’t provide special status to Aboriginal nations as it did for Quebec. When June 23rd, 1990 came, time ran out of the Meech Lake Accord, and these agreements were unsuccessful.