Da Legal Stuff...

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Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Forced Marriage

Hi all,

I'm still on vacation enjoying our great NL weather and touring around. I expect to be back to writing my regular commentaries in a week or so but in the mean time here's another little article from days gone by that I recently came across.

Enjoy,
Myles

The following appeard in Time Magazine (Canadian edition) 1949.

In London last week, the House of Commons debated the bill to legalize the entry of Newfoundland into Canada as a tenth province. To a half-empty House, ceremonious, grey-haired Philip Noel-Baker, Commonwealth Relations Secretary, spoke for the Labor Government. All that the House was doing, said he, was to ratify action already taken by the two dominions. Newfoundlanders had voted last summer to join Canada ; Canadians had accepted.

But the sentiment of the House was not entirely unanimous. Independent Sir Alan Patrick Herbert, author (Holy Deadlock) and wit, rose from the front Opposition bench like an agitated penguin. Ever since he toured Newfoundland with a parliamentary good will mission in 1943, Sir Alan had been an unofficial spokesman for his islander friends.

The only legal course for the House, he said, was first to reconstitute a legislature such as Newfoundland had in 1933 before it went bankrupt and was taken over by a British-appointed Commission of Government. Waving his notes, Sir Alan cried: "I am tired of hearing people say that we are doing the right thing in the wrong way. If we are doing it in the wrong way, it cannot be the right thing. We do not say that about a forced marriage or a rape. We do not say: 'The young lady must go to bed one day. What does it matter what the arrangements are?' We take good care that she knows what she is doing, that she is willing, and that she is to be properly provided for. That is what we must do in this House."

Sir Alan appealed to the members' sense of British fair play: "Even the rules of cricket cannot be altered without a two-thirds majority." All the Newfoundlanders want, he added, "is to be able to determine [their] own future in [their] own Parliament instead of being chucked across the counter in a tied-up parcel as if [they] did not matter."

Everyone agreed that Spokesman Herbert had done splendidly; everyone had laughed at the right places in his speech. But the vote was 217 for confederation, 15 against it. This week the bill would be up for the routine third and final reading. Confederation was scheduled for March 31.

Source: "Forced Marriage?, Time (Canadian edition), March 14, 1949 , p. 25.

18 comments:

Wince said...

FIRST COMMENT!!! I WIN AGAIN!!!

Anonymous said...

Independent Sir Alan Patrick Herbert, was so right in his analogy of comparing Newfoundland's entry into Confederation as a forced marriage.

Our entry into Confederation was instituted in 1933 and according to the Prime Minister of Canada, Louis St. Laurent's speech of May 1949, Canada got its 80 year dream fulfilled the year of 1949 by folding Newfoundland into the mix.

Anonymous said...

wince

Wince - I would like to intrepret your comment but unfortunately with so little info I cannot. Maybe if you put a little more info into your statements, everyone else and Myles would know what you are speaking of. Or is it something between Myles and yourself, if it is please ignore my query?

Anonymous said...

Then what does that make Newfoundland's ownership of Labrador, date rape? Pimping?

Wince said...

It's quite simple. Myles posts an article and then I beat all you other slow-pokes to the punch by posting the first comment. It has no substance mind you... but it clearly demonstrates my dominance as a first commentor! Since I started keeping score, I am 2-0.

You all suck!

I rule!

Anonymous said...

It is not Newfoundland which raped Labrador, it was Quebec, Onatario and now Manitoba under the auspices of Ottawa.

It is shocking that the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador has responsiblity for Labrador, but other places are reaping the fruits of Labrador. Quebec is reaping more than a Billion from Hydro electricity and then there is the Iron Ore. Ontario uses the Iron Ore for manufacturing and then there is the Nickel and other metals out of Voisey's Bay and of course Manitoba is a recipient of the Nickel and other ores out of Voisey`s Bay.

It shocking that the other provinces are getting the fruits and the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador is responsible for the infrastructure which the province`s government is too poor to provide Labrador and Newfoundland, because the profits for the fruitséresourcesthat I mentioned above are going to the places which are the recipient of the fruits or the natural resources out of Labrador.

Anonymous said...

I can no longer sit back and allow Canadian infiltration, Canadian indoctrination, Canadian subversion and the international Canadian conspiracy to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids.

God willing, we will prevail, in peace and freedom from fear, and in true health, through the purity and essence of our natural fluids.

Anonymous said...

"It is not Newfoundland which raped Labrador, it was Quebec, Onatario and now Manitoba under the auspices of Ottawa."

You've got to be kidding. Newfoundland is NEVER at fault?????

Just one example - all mineral royalties from IOC and Voisey's Bay go to NL, because it is an on-land resource. NL set the taxes (and the provincial corporate taxes).

Stop blaming everyone else. We have to accept responsibility and blame as well as authority and credit.

Anonymous said...

anonymous you are wrong.

Obvious the Canadian conspiracy has infected your precious bodily fluids.

Anonymous said...

The mineral royalties for the province of Newfoundland and Labrador from IOC and Voisey's Bay are but a pittance compared to what Quebec gets from being the beneficiary of the Upper Churchill Hydroelectricity Energy. Quebec gets more than a Billion per year
from the sale of the Upper Churchill Hydroelectricity Energy compared to just millions for the province of Newfoundland and Labrador. I would like to ask the question what do Ontario and Manitoba get from being the beneficiary of the Voisey's Bay Nickel Ore that keeps two of their cities main industries percolating.

Labrador is such a beautiful and enormously large land mass with just under 28,000 people. If the province had gotten to be the beneficiary of that $1 billion dollars plus per year from the Upper Churchill that Quebec receives, Labrador's roads could have been paved in GOLD, but Quebec has the loot and has no responsibility to put one inch of pavement or any type of infrastructure in Labrador. Ontario and Manitoba are enjoying the sustenance of industry from the Voisey's Bay Nickel for Sudbury and Thompson and neither of those provinces has any responsibility to put one inch of of pavement or infrastructure there as well.

If the provincial government of Newfoundland and Labrador had been the primary beneficiary of either of the two resources mentioned above, I will repeat, Labrador's highway could have been paved with Gold.

Please do not tell me that Ottawa had nothing to do with the outcome of two of those Labrador resources being shipped to Quebec, Ontario and Manitoba to keep the economies percolating there. I know the difference.

Anonymous said...

http://youtube.com/watch?v=9bVNMHkW8Hk

Anonymous said...

"Please don't tell me..."

Ok.

Just keep fighting to protect your precious bodily fluids from the international Canadian conspiracy.

R. Raleigh said...

The International Canadian Conspiracy: Resistance, while not futile, would be impolite.

(Pour l'assimilation en francais, appuyer sur 2)

Anonymous said...

Newfoundland is taking advantage of Labrador,OH MY GOD ,this site is turning into the joke it truely is.What a farce of fact.

Too all you who think that Newfoundland is taking advantage,i would like you too look at one thing,and one thing only.Who is cashing the cheque and who isnt.Plain and simple.Get the facts jack before you open your gob.

I am a strong Newfoundland Nationalist and I strongly believe in separation from Canada.What has shown me the light is how ill-treated Labrador truely is.I want nothing more then to see a strong and prosperous Labrador,for a strong Labrador means a better Province for us all.I would love nothing more then to live in my own Province.Be it on our Island or in the big land,no differance to me,but this blame that we throw at each other must stop befor we can move forward.

If I had only one wish in my life,i would wish for my fellow countrymen and woman to relise how we are seen out-side of our great province.But ,i cant do that ,so maybe this little bit of writing from a Blogster can get across what I am trying to say.Enjoy this story guys,this is what Canada thinks of the you.

https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=1942698549247853596&postID=5969217164928450007

Excample number two,

http://liamgosset.blogspot.com/2006/03/salt-of-earth.html

Conquer and divide I believe is the right term Canada should be using .I will see who is going to help Quebec come the next referendum .As for myself,i will proudly hold the door for them .

Anonymous said...

calvin said:

"Conquer and divide..."


Actually, the term is "divide and conquer", but you're right... And it's exactly why Ottawa gets its way with us time and time again. Canuckistan will continue to stall our progress for its own benefit unless NL'ians smarten up and agree to work together for a brighter future.

However, pigs are more likely to fly than NL'ians ever coming to a consensus on an issue, so we're pretty much f*cked.

Anonymous said...

Pigs flying?

Would that be like SPider Pig?

Anonymous said...

guys, there's nothing stopping any of you from opening your own steel mill. You can buy Labrador ore from IOC for the same price, probably cheaper given the transportation costs. Get off your arses and open a steel mill.

Or get off your arses and force a REFERENDUM!!!

Anonymous said...

Danny Williasm should open a steel mill, he's such a great businessman and very successful at every thing he ever does.