Brian Peckford debunks the “Kitchen Accord” and “Night of Long Knives” Narrative
- Giving Credit Where Credit’s Due: Rewriting the Patriation Story:
For the last 30 years, politicians and the media have frequently recounted the same story about the patriation of Canada’s constitution and the adoption of the Charter of Rights. Most of the credit in this version goes to Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, but three others are recognized for breaking an impasse in the negotiations in 1981: federal justice minister Jean Chrétien, Saskatchewan attorney general Roy Romanow, and Ontario attorney general Roy McMurtry. In his memoirs, Newfoundland Premier Brian Peckford argues that the key intervention came not from Romanow, Chrétien, and McMcMurtry, but from Peckford himself and the members of the Newfoundland delegation.The long-accepted narrative goes like this. In the 1980s, Trudeau was determined to create a charter of rights and a procedure that would allow Canada to amend its constitution without seeking Britain’s permission, a legacy from the country’s colonial past. Trudeau faced opposition from eight provincial premiers (all but those from Ontario and New Brunswick), who formed the Gang of Eight to advance their own decentralized vision of Canada. After failing to come to an agreement with the provinces, Trudeau decided to proceed without them, but a Supreme Court ruling forced him back to the negotiating table.
According to this version of history, the decisive moment came during a federal-provincial conference in November 1981. The deadlock between Ottawa and the provinces was broken when Chrétien, Romanow, and McMurtry left the main meeting room in the Ottawa Conference Centre and ducked into an unused kitchen pantry. There they reached a compromise, which journalists later mythologized as the “Kitchen Accord.” Seen as the backbone of Canada’s new constitution, the agreement provided for a charter of rights and a notwithstanding clause that would allow legislatures to exempt legislation from the charter’s terms. The accord also included a provision that the constitution could be amended with the approval of the federal parliament and two-thirds of the provinces representing at least 50 per cent of the Canadian population.In Some Day the Sun Will Shine and Have Not Will Be No More, Brian Peckford provides documentation to support his claim that the patriation package of 1981 evolved from a Newfoundland proposal and not from the Kitchen Accord. In Peckford’s account, he prepared a formal document, which was revised during the night of 4 November 1981, hours after the creation of the Kitchen Accord, in a meeting with representatives from several provinces. The next morning, Peckford presented the agreement to the federal-provincial conference. The federal government and all the provinces except Quebec agreed to the package, which, with a few amendments, became Canada’s constitution.
Peckford’s account brings long-needed balance to the story. The patriation process was a complex series of manoeuvres, in which several individuals played pivotal roles. To credit only Trudeau, Chrétien, Romanow, and McMurtry is to miss a large part of what actually happened. Many politicians and officials were present on the night of 4 November 1981 in the Chateau Laurier suite of Saskatchewan Premier Allan Blakeney, where six provinces accepted a revised version of Peckford’s plan. Few of the participants in that historic meeting even knew about the existence of Kitchen Accord.
This is not to say that the Kitchen Accord was unimportant. It might not have had any direct effect on Newfoundland or many of the other provincial delegations, but it was essential in altering the positions of Ontario and the federal government. When Chrétien and McMurtry left the kitchen pantry, they were committed to an agreement that would include a notwithstanding clause to limit the force of a new Charter of Rights. Chrétien began to push Prime Minister Trudeau to accept such a deal, unknowingly preparing him for the Peckford proposal. Ontario similarly had moved to a place where it would accept what the Newfoundland premier was about to put forward. It was Romanow, through the Kitchen Accord, and not Peckford, who had forged an agreement with the governments of Canada and Ontario.
Brian Peckford deserves considerable credit for our constitution, alongside Pierre Trudeau, Jean Chrétien, Roy Romanow, and Roy McMurtry. Important too were Saskatchewan’s Howard Leeson, Alberta’s Peter Meekison, and countless other unelected officials who shunned the spotlight and have been largely ignored in the history books.
People like simple stories, and the media and politicians oblige. Yet there was nothing simple about our constitutional drama of 1981.
Stephen Azzi is associate professor in the Clayton H. Riddell Graduate Program in Political Management and the Department of History, Carleton University. He recently revised the/ Canadian Encyclopedia entry on “Patriation of the Constitution.”
continue reading: http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/featured/giving-credit-where-credits-due-rewriting-the-patriation-story
- Brian Peckford and the patriation of the Canadian constitution:
In Some Day the Sun Will Shine and Have Not Will Be No More, the political memoirs of Brian Peckford, former premier of Newfoundland and Labrador from 1979 to 1989, were formally published today at a launch party in St. John’s. Political Management professor and historian Stephen Azzi, writing in the Canadian Encyclopedia, draws attention to a little-known but markedly consequential contribution Peckford made to the Canada that exists today: his role in breaking the political log jam that permitted the patriation of the constitution and the adoption of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms in 1982.
The commonly accepted folklore holds that the provinces and the federal government were bitterly divided at the constitutional conference of November, 1981, until federal justice minister Jean Chrétien, Saskatchewan attorney general Roy Romanow, and Ontario attorney general Roy McMurtry ducked into an unused pantry in the conference centre and hashed out a compromise that was later dubbed “the Kitchen Accord.” It is a nice story, says Prof. Azzi, but it fails to do justice to the complexities of the negotiations or to the role played by Brian Peckford in bringing about an eventual agreement.
Read Prof. Azzi’s account at: http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/featured/giving-credit-where-credits-due-rewriting-the-patriation-storyRandy Boswell, who teaches in the School of Journalism and Communication, noted in the National Post how the Canadian Encyclopedia rewrote its entry on the constitution’s patriation to acknowledge Peckford’s contribution: http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/09/12/kitchen-accord-downgraded-former-premier-rewrites-constitutional-history/
continue reading: http://www6.carleton.ca/politicalmanagement/2012/brian-peckford-and-the-patriation-of-the-canadian-constitution
- Brian Peckford interview on Power and Politics with Evan Solomon
POLITICS | Oct 8, 2012 | 44:38http://www.cbc.ca/player/News/Politics/Power+%26+Politics/ID/2288652796/
- Brian Peckford re-writes constitution’s Night of Long Knives
CBC News
Posted: Sep 20, 2012 9:54 AM ET
Last Updated: Sep 20, 2012 9:53 AM ETIt is one of the enduring stories of the battle to patriate Canada’s constitution: late-night talks on Nov. 4, 1981 that produced the Kitchen Accord, a compromise that ultimately led to an agreement that brought home Canada’s constitution.
That breakthrough has long been credited to then Justice Minister Jean Chrétien, Saskatchewan Attorney General Roy Romanow and Ontario Attorney General Roy McMurty — the so-called Kitchen Cabinet that met in the kitchen of Ottawa’s convention centre until the wee hours.
In Quebec, it has been known by another name: the Night of the Long Knives, referring to the perceived exclusion of Quebec premier René Lévesque and the betrayal of Quebec’s interests.
But 30 years later, another version of events has emerged — and former Newfoundland premier Brian Peckford has outlined his own account in a new book, Some Day the Sun Will Shine and Have Not Will Be No More.
Was it his proposal that actually laid the ground for the final agreement during the historic constitutional talks? Brian Peckford spoke with Power & Politics host Evan Solomon.
continue reading: http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/story/2012/09/20/pol-brian-peckford-patriation-constitution-power-and-politics.html
- Peckford rewrites history with new account of ‘Kitchen Accord’ to patriate Constitution
Randy Boswell, Postmedia News | Sep 12, 2012 11:54 PM ET | Last Updated: Sep 13, 2012 12:27 AM ETFormer Newfoundland premier Brian Peckford has literally rewritten history, prompting the Canadian Encyclopedia to substantially revise the story of the 1982 patriation of the Constitution.
The then-premier of Canada’s newest province now gets central credit in shaping the historic deal, with the encyclopedia playing down somewhat the significance of the famous “Kitchen Accord” led by future prime minister Jean Chrétien that up until now was largely thought to be the constitutional saga’s breakthrough moment.
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Mr. Peckford, whose political memoir was launched Wednesday in St. John’s, used the 30th anniversary of patriation in April to raise objections to the prevailing “mythology” about how the deal was done during a high-stakes first ministers’ conference in Ottawa in November, 1981.
Now, the country’s main easy-reference resource for historical knowledge has examined Mr. Peckford’s claims, conducted additional research and — as the author of the revised patriation entry puts it — is now “giving credit where credit’s due.”
Carleton University political historian Stephen Azzi told Postmedia News that he read Mr. Peckford’s book as well as “copies of documents in his possession from this period.… They convince me that Mr. Peckfordand the Newfoundland delegation played a significant role, one that has to be acknowledged properly.”Mr. Azzi said he also spoke with other key players in the 1981 constitutional talks to confirm Mr. Peckford’s claims about how the landmark deal was struck.Mr. Azzi, in an article also posted at the Canadian Encyclopedia website that explains how he came to accept much of Mr. Peckford’s claim, states the former premier’s account “brings long-needed balance to the story” of the 1981 constitutional bargain.
The patriation process was a complex series of manoeuvres, in which several individuals played pivotal roles
“The patriation process was a complex series of manoeuvres, in which several individuals played pivotal roles,” Mr. Azzi writes.
The revised entry pointedly details how Mr. Peckford’s proposal for a constitutional deal was presented to the “Gang of Eight” premiers — all but Ontario’s Bill Davis and Quebec’s Réné Lévesque — at a critical breakfast meeting at Ottawa’s Château Laurier hotel at the height of the constitutional impasse.
“After some minor adjustments, the federal government, Ontario, and New Brunswick signed on, and the deed was done,” the encyclopedia entry now states.
The federal-provincial conference — a last-ditch bid to end months of wrangling over constitutional reforms, and to avoid having the federal government of then-prime minister Pierre Trudeau act unilaterally on the issue — is well known to have produced the final patriation deal, though Quebec’s rejection of the accord at the time left an enduring source of tension in the Canadian federation.
Key sticking points were a constitutional amending formula, provincial qualms about the scope of the charter being championed by Trudeau, and federal concerns about the provinces’ demand for a controversial “notwithstanding” clause, aimed at overriding certain provisions of the charter in exceptional circumstances.
The 30-year story of the Chrétien-Romanow-McMurtry [breakthrough] is a myth
Narratives of the negotiations typically credit Mr. Chrétien — then Trudeau’s justice minister — and attorneys general Roy McMurtry of Ontario and Roy Romanow of Saskatchewan with outlining the basic terms of an agreement on a napkin while cloistered in a cooking area at the Government Conference Centre in Ottawa, directly across the street from the Château Laurier.
The 70-year-old Mr. Peckford — then the 39-year-old Progressive Conservative premier of Newfoundland and Labrador — has made a campaign of “setting the record straight” since he started researching his political memoirs, titled Some Day the Sun Will Shine and Have Not Will Be No More. “The 30-year story of the Chrétien-Romanow-McMurtry [breakthrough] is a myth,” Mr. Peckford told Postmedia News in April.
Postmedia News
continue reading: http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/09/12/kitchen-accord-downgraded-former-premier-rewrites-constitutional-history/
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