Quebec

OTTAWA -- Canadians on both sides of the nation's deep linguistic divide say they were stunned by President Clinton's unexpectedly passionate appeal here for national unity and federalism.Clinton traveled to the flash point of separatism in North America and, without mentioning Quebec nationalism, argued Friday that "the United States and Canada are among the most fortunate countries in the world because we have such diversity."If every major "racial and ethnic and religious group" won independence, "we might have 800 countries in the world and have a very difficult time having a functioning economy," Clinton said, addressing a forum on federalism that earlier in the week had become a platform for complaints by Quebec separatists.

MONTREAL -- Quebec has had it with "pie terrorists" and is starting to hurl criminal charges at the political pastry throwers who in recent months have gotten in the faces of many prominent figures.The crackdown on the "Entartistes," as the cream pie anarchists call themselves, is winning praise from news columnists and others who usually delight in taking aim at the high and mighty -- but who say the pie throwers are far more pompous than the politicians they harass."They are nothing more than out-of-control aggressors who are to democracy what germs are to public health," said Pierre Bourgault, a political commentator for Journal de Montreal.

WHAT IF the federal government, instead of defending Fort Sumter in 1861, had taken the Confederacy to court for a ruling on secession? Could the Union have been saved and the Civil War averted? Probably not.Canada's federal government of Prime Minister Jean Chretien has asked its Supreme Court to define the right, terms and conditions for Quebec to secede. The object is not to ward off a war, which no Canadian expects, but to seize the initiative from the separatists in defining the terms of debate and decision.

IF QUEBEC VOTERS decide in a referendum to secede from Canada, that would not be the final word. But it would oblige the federal government in Ottawa to negotiate the terms of independence with officials in Quebec City. That was the decision handed down recently by Canada's Supreme Court.In a remarkable 50-page opinion, the Canadian high court unanimously spelled out a reasonable procedure, discussing the meaning of federalism, democracy and other politically sacred concepts along the way. The ruling would turn this often violent question into a sober political process.

WHILE POST-INAUGURAL Washington was looking inward, Canada's prime minister was in Paris Wednesday and his foreign minister was in Havana. The United States' closest neighbor and NAFTA partner, sharing the largest bilateral trade in the world, has policies of its own based on interests of its own.Prime Minister Jean Chretien visited Paris to bind France to Canada as an important French-speaking country. He is boosting La Francophonie, the organization of French-speaking nations, and promoting trade.

CALGARY, Alberta -- Summers are fleeting in Canada, and so are respites from the great national debate over whether Quebec's separatists can break the country apart by leading their French-speaking province to independence.Already last week, it was gray and damp and the temperature was in the 40s when the elected leaders of the nation's 11 English-speaking provinces and territories gathered in Calgary at the foot of the Rocky Mountains. They came hoping to find a common strategy for fighting the Quebec secessionists, met behind closed doors for nearly 12 hours and left with an agreement only to hold more meetings -- a series of public hearings all over the country before Christmas, asking any Canadians who care to attend what they think ought to be done.

WE ARRIVED in Montreal to find that the Quebec campaign to secede from Canada had reached an angry juncture. A year ago we had been there during the historic referendum on secession; it was narrowly defeated, leaving the Francophone (French-speaking) majority determined to win next time and the Anglophones confused and alarmed.This year the Quebec separatists seem even more determined, and the Anglophones, relatively docile in the past, have begun to show signs of fighting back. A shopkeeper defied the weird anti-English sign law by posting forbidden equal-sized French and English signs outside his shop.

Robert Bourassa, 63, who confronted separatist violence, language disputes and Indian militancy during four stormy terms as Quebec's premier, died of skin cancer Wednesday in Montreal.Although opposed to Quebec's secession from Canada, he struggled to find a balance between federalism and Quebec nationalism.He was elected four times as Quebec's premier, serving from 1970 to 1976 and from 1985 to 1994. In 1970, at 36, he was the youngest premier ever elected.After taking power, he was plunged into Quebec's worst political crisis when Quebec Liberation Front separatists kidnapped and killed his labor minister.

MONTREAL -- It is an article of deepest faith among Canadians that Americans know little about this country, and care less.So it was with emotions ranging from astonishment to outrage that Canadian TV viewers yesterday found stations cutting live to a U.S. congressional hearing on this country's political future, or lack of one.There were no really new developments in Canada's unity crisis. But in a strange sort of way the severity of that crisis was driven home to Canadians as they heard a panel of U.S. experts testify in Washington that Canada could be headed for meltdown and perhaps mayhem.

TORONTO -- In a Passover week crackdown that has outraged Montreal's 100,000-member Jewish community, the Quebec government has blocked the distribution of kosher foods labeled only in English because they violate the province's law requiring French on all packaging.Although kosher food labeled in French is available year-round in Quebec, supermarkets import additional products from the United States and Israel for Passover, when special food is needed. Those typically are labeled only in English because there isn't time to relabel them locally in French.

THERESA M. HENRY (nee Molloy) passed away quietly after a long fight with Alzheimer at the Residence Legault in Beaconsfield on June 10, 2009. She will be greatly missed by all, especially Elsie, Linda, Billy, Susan and Nancy. Special thanks to Hazel and all her angels. A Memorial Service will be held at the Kane & Fetterly Funeral Home Chapel, 5301 Decarie Blvd., Montreal, Quebec (corner Isabella) on Sunday, August 2nd at 2:00 PM. In lieu of flowers, donations to the SPCA would be appreciated

TORONTO - A bacterium that causes virulent diarrhea in the elderly has been spreading through hospitals in Quebec and Alberta, and might have contributed to the deaths of 100 patients in one institution in the past 18 months, medical authorities said yesterday. The spread of an infectious illness in at least a handful of hospitals has Canadian health experts concerned. Hospital officials say housekeeping staffs have been stretched thin because of cutbacks in federal and provincial funding in recent years and that sanitary conditions suffered.

WAS THAT A whiff of global warming we were breathing in on Sunday? Huge tracts of forest are burning just east of Hudson Bay in Quebec, and although Americans would normally be content to ignore a natural disaster so remote and so far away, this time it was impossible because a freakish weather pattern brought the smoke southward as far as Baltimore - and even beyond. As of yesterday, the amount of land that had been burned in Quebec was about the same as in Arizona in June - something over 400,000 acres.

J.P. Shilling of Baltimore, a member of the U.S. Olympic team, was one of four U.S. skaters to qualify for the World Allround Speed Skating Championships to be held this weekend in Heerenveen, Netherlands. Last weekend, Shilling skated races of 500, 1,500, 5,000 and 10,000 meters as part of the Continental Cup competition in St. Foy, Quebec, and finished fourth overall with a cumulative 170.027 points. The Continental Cup is the North American regional qualifying event for the world championships.

MONTREAL - So, did you hear that Canada is finally granting the vote to citizens of Irish ancestry? And that diabetics in this realm of permafrost can take heart that legalization of insulin appears just around the corner? And the country's public school system is expanding to offer ninth grade? That's the good news. On the downside, it's doubtful that Canada will find the moral fiber to end its unhappy custom of stranding old folk in the Arctic to cut social security costs. And global warming poses a threat to the national Parliament building - constructed, as everyone knows, of ice bricks in the form of a giant igloo.

Baseball Marlins: Announced P Brian Edmondson has elected to exercise his right of free agency. Basketball Clippers: Waived F Rocky Walls and C Joe Vogel. Nets: Waived G Adrian Autry. College Salisbury State: Reggie Boyce (Dunbar) was named Atlantic Central Football Conference's Offensive Player of the Week. Football Patriots: Waived TE Chris Fontenot from practice squad. Hockey Blackhawks: Signed LW Kris King. Bruins: Recalled G Kay Whitmore from AHL Providence. Canadiens: Recalled G Jose Theodore from AHL Quebec.

If you find Paris impossibly romantic, don't miss Quebec. Street mimes and caricaturists cluster around the cobbled squares at the center of Old Quebec -- much like the Montmartre district of Paris. Boutiques brimming with charming knick-knacks line the winding streets -- reminiscent of the Mouffetard district. Hundreds-year-old tables, sea chests and porcelains fill the windows along a row of antiques shops -- recalling the Left Bank. Add the lilt of French accents and menus filled with promises of moules frites and escargots, and you may think you simply slept through the body-wrenching six-hour time change between here and France.

THE CANADA that we see from south of the border is bilingual and multicultural coast-to-coast. It has its own constitution with its version of a bill of rights. It goes its own way in foreign policy, often as United Nations peace-keepers. Canada was not always that way. Pierre Elliott Trudeau introduced all this while prime minister from 1968 to 1979 and 1980 to 1984. It was not easy to achieve. Many English-and French-speaking Canadians were dragged along kicking and screaming. But his vision of Canada was the only alternative in Quebec to a language-, heritage- and religion- based provincialism, rebelling against second-class citizenship, which would have destroyed Canada for something else that, even now, is difficult to imagine.

MY BEST SHOT Gokyo Valley, Nepal Andrea Kelly Berlin While trekking into the Gokyo Valley of Nepal in November, I came upon this yak posed in front of peaks near Mount Everest. Yaks are very temperamental, so I gave him a wide berth as I passed. A MEMORABLE PLACE Back to Old World roots By Barbara Anderson SPECIAL TO THE SUN One hundred years ago, my maternal grandparents left Budapest, Hungary, to start a new life in the United States. One hundred years later, I spent four wonderful days in Budapest, ushering in the new century with a fantastic New Year's Eve party in the five-star Budapest Hilton.

VALCOURT, Quebec -- Nestled in the Riviere Noire valley, 30 miles north of Vermont, is a shrine to the man who revolutionized winter recreation with his machine. "When it comes to history, I'm like, `Ugh, boring.' But I really wanted to come here," said Annette Turgeon, 32, of Bangor, Maine. Turgeon, her husband and their two sons roared into the parking lot of the J. Armand Bombardier Museum the other day astride four gleaming sleds, as snowmobiles are called by the 2.1 million North Americans for whom they are a high-powered passion.