2008 Canadian Constitutional Affairs Conference

The 2008 Canadian Constitutional Affairs Conference – organized by a group of students from the Laval and McGill Faculties of Law (headed by Adam Daifallah and Hugh Meighen) – aims to bring together constitutional experts and student delegations from all of Canada’s law faculties to debate and discuss the evolution of the Canadian Constitution. This conference, inspired by a similar event held at Laval University in 1961, will mark the 400th anniversary of the founding of Quebec City.
See Adam Daifallah’s blog dated January 21, 2008.

Landry does it again at Montrealer’s constitutional law conference
By P.A. Sévigny, The Suburban
With some overblown rhetoric worthy of his now infamous description of the Canadian flag as a “red rag”, former provincial premier and PQ leader Bernard Landry did it again during a recent Quebec City constitutional law conference.
During a heated and sometimes emotional debate about the 1982 repatriation of the British North America Act, Landry paralleled former Canadian prime minister Pierre Trudeau’s description of Canada’s new constitution to Adolf Hitler’s description of the “1,000-year Reich!” During a speech delivered to law students at the conference, Landry began the quarrel when he quoted the late Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau as having said “This constitution will last 1,000 years.”
Landry, a founding member of the Parti Québécois, (membership card #41) then began to pour fuel upon his own heated rhetoric when he added: “He drew inspiration, I am afraid, from one of the most horrible people of Western history and I don’t need to say his name.” Landry didn’t have to attribute the quote because Hitler’s promise to lead the German people into a 1000-year Reich, or empire, has made its way into the world’s collective and iconic memory.
Eddie Goldenberg, a former aide to Prime Minister Jean Chrétien who was also personally involved in the repatriation process, was present at the conference and was on the same panel alongside Landry. When it was Goldenberg’s turn to talk, Montreal lawyer and conference organizer Adam Daifallah said Goldenberg bluntly accused Landry of drawing a parallel between Trudeau and Hitler and demanded an immediate apology for his words.
“Landry’s face turned beet red,” said Daifallah. “For a minute I thought he was going to take a swing at him [Goldenberg] but nothing happened and everybody settled down.”
Daifallah also mentioned how Landry did offer apologies of a sort insofar as he said his words were misunderstood and he was sorry if anybody took offence.
Daifallah and other law students — including Hugh Meighen, former prime minister Arthur Meighen’s great-grandson — decided to organize the conference as they felt they had to take the initiative to open the nation’s next debate about its own constitution.
“It’s the elephant in the bedroom,” said Daifallah. “Nobody wants to deal with the problems so they just do their best to ignore it.”
Six law students from every law school in the nation attended the conference and all considered it to be a success and “a step in the right direction.”
January 20, 2008

(The Ottawa Citizen) Ex-PQ leader accused of comparing Trudeau to Hitler
Former Liberal aide blasts Landry for ‘disgusting’ comments
QUEBEC – In a heated and emotional debate yesterday about the patriation of the Constitution in 1982, the former chief of staff of Jean Chrétien, Eddie Goldenberg, accused former Quebec premier Bernard Landry of comparing Pierre Elliott Trudeau to Adolf Hitler.
In his speech delivered to law students in Quebec City, Mr. Landry quoted the late Liberal prime minister and driving force behind the patriation of the Constitution as saying at the time: “This Constitution will last 1,000 years.” More