Quebec

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.

A constitutional crisis happens now and then in the United States, but Canada seems always to be in the midst of one. The biggest threat to constitutional peace in Canada, however, is fast losing its potency: The nation is not going to split up, because Quebec is not leaving.At the same time, constitutional turmoil in Canada is not about to end. It is, in fact, chronic, and has been at least since 1982, when Canadians brought their made-in-Britain constitution home and made it their own. Both the national government in Ottawa and the governments in the 10 provinces often use constitutional impasse as a bargaining ploy in all kinds of policy discussions.

WHOEVER wanted closure on the issue of Quebec independence from the provincial election Monday was sorely disappointed. Separatism is rejected for now, but separatists remain in charge.Their long-range goal is clear. The issue remains on Canada's agenda for the next five years, no matter how this exasperates Canadians in the other nine provinces.Quebecers are less enamored of separation from Canada as their business class grows, their contribution to national leadership expands and the advantages of Canadian citizenship are reaffirmed.

Canadian elections of recent years have been compelling because so much has been hanging in the balance - the continued existence of our northern neighbor as a united country. It is hanging in the balance again, as the people of Quebec go to the polls tomorrow.In 1980 and again in 1995, Quebec separatists pushed for referendums on whether the mostly French-speaking province - with 25 percent of the country's population - should secede from mostly English-speaking Canada.Both times the separatists lost, the last time barely.

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.

THE NEED for Jean Charest to quit leading the federal Conservatives in Canada's parliament to join the provincial Liberals in Quebec's National Assembly, illustrates Canada's fragility.Imagine that Sen. Trent Lott or Rep. Newt Gingrich quit leading Republicans in Congress to run for governor of Texas as a Democrat and was the only hope of preventing the state's secession. That is roughly what Mr. Charest is doing.Though only 39, he was already engaged in saving Canada. After the formerly ruling Conservatives were virtually wiped out of the federal parliament in 1993, leaving the Liberals in power and the opposition split between parties that would tear the country apart, the young former cabinet minister took over and began the Conservatives' revival.

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.

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.

Alexandre Neault, a French-Canadian sailor four months into a two-year voyage around the American continents, pulled his 20-foot catamaran into an Ocean City marina yesterday in need of sleep, food and a little sun block.In March, Neault, 24, left his home in Trois-Rivieres in Quebec with a catamaran and $20 in his pocket -- the change after he sold all his worldly possessions to outfit himself for the 25,000-mile trip."My boat is my children," he said yesterday in broken English. "No boat, no expedition."

SAINT-NICOLAS, Quebec -- The bomb was simplicity itself. Fifty pounds of dynamite affixed to the gasoline tank of a Jeep. Insert detonator. Set timing device. Leave vehicle on the quiet street where Hell's Angels live.On March 8, the blast, attributed to a rival gang, shattered the stillness of this community, but hardly scratched the intended target -- the steel-shuttered, concrete-reinforced headquarters of the local chapter of "Les Hells," as riders of the world's most infamous motorcycle gang are called in Quebec.