UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Friday, September 27, 1996
7A
Quebec looking to separate
Court to probe secession issue
The Associated Press
TORONTO — To the wrath of separatists, the government asked the Supreme Court yesterday to rule on Canada's most volatile political question — whether Quebec has the right to secede unilaterally.
Separatism in the mostly French-speaking province has been the dominant national issue for decades, yet federal officials have never before sought a court ruling on the legality of unilateral independence.
The announcement by Justice Minister Allan Rock was swiftly denounced by Quebec's separatist government.
"There is only one court that will decide on the future of Quebec," said Lucian Bouchard, Quebec's premier. "The verdict will come from the Quebec people in the next referendum."
Quebec has twice held referendums on seceding from Canada, including a vote 11 months ago in which the separatists stunned the nation by winning 49.4 percent of the votes. The provincial government intends to hold another referendum within the next few years, and Rock said he wanted a definitive legal ruling before the vote is held.
He is asking the Supreme Court to rule on three specific questions:
Can the Quebec legislature unilaterally declare independence from Canada?
Does international law give Quebec the right to secede?
Canadian and international law on the issue, which takes precedence?
If there is a conflict between
Rock said the federal government did not contest Quebec's right to have a referendum aimed at gauging the sentiments of its voters.
He said, however, that Quebec's government was profoundly wrong in contending that it could declare independence solely on the basis of such a referendum.
"It is contrary to Canadian law, unsupported by international law and is deeply threatening to the orderly governance of our nation." Rock told the House of Commons. "The responsible and effective thing to do is submit the issue for determination by the Supreme Court."
The Quebec government, while insisting international law gives the province the right to self-determination, said it would not argue its side of the case before the Supreme
Quebec, Canada's largest province in area, has 7.3 million people — a quarter of the population. More than 80 percent speak French.
Court.
"Quebeckers will just become stronger in their conviction that the future for them is to decide for themselves and not to have to endure these daily confrontations," he said.
Michel Gautier, leader of the separatist faction in Parliament, said the decision to seek a court ruling was an attempt to frighten Queckebers.
Opinion polls indicate the 80 to 90 percent of Quebeckers agree with the separatist argument that the matter is for them alone to decide.
Federal officials said it could take four to five months before the Supreme Court could hear the case and up to a year before a ruling was made.
Skywatchers catch light show
KNIGHT-RIDDER TRIBUNE
Two continents view last lunar eclipse of century
The Associated Press
BOSTON — Skywatchers on two continents last night awaited a prime-time celestial light show -- the last full lunar eclipse of the 1990s. The next one is expected in January 2000.
Astronomers said the eclipse would be visible to nearly everyone in North, Central and South America, unless clouds intervened.
A total lunar eclipse occurs whenever the Earth moves between the
sun and the full moon, casting its curved shadow across the moon.
Even when the moon is completely in the Earth's shadow, it doesn't get entirely dark; it is often a faint reddish color from sunlight filtering around the Earth's edge.
The Earth's shadow was expected to fall across the moon starting at 9:12 p.m. EDT, with the darkest part of the eclipse coming at 10:54 p.m.
Kelly Beattie, senior editor of Sky and Telescope magazine, said lunar eclipses were an equal opportunity event that enabled non-experts to see nature at its best without special gear.
"A lunar eclipse is one of the cosmic wonders that occurs, and people should appreciate the fact that astronomy is beautiful," he said.
Dole gains ground in presidential race
Tracking poll says Clinton's advantage stands at 10 points
The Associated Press
NEW YORK - A national tracking poll released yesterday found the presidential race tightening a bit in the past week, with President Clinton's re-election lead at 10 percentage points.
The rolling average of CNN-USA Today-Gallup samples from Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday nights gave Democrats Clinton and Al Gore 49 percent, Republicans Bob Dole and Jack Kemp 39 percent, and Reform Party candidates Ross Perot and Pat Choate 6 percent.
While not statistically different from tracking results released Tuesday and Wednesday, the new numbers did represent some narrowing of the race since the Sept. 17-19 averages: 55 percent for Clinton, 34
percent for Dole and 4 percent for Perot.
The new survey interviewed 737 likely voters. Each result was subject to sampling error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.
Also yesterday, a survey released on the PoliticsNow Internet site put the race at 51-36-6. That poll, by ICR Survey Research Group, was a single national sample of 1,391 likely voters interviewed Sept. 18-24; the error margin was plus or minus 4 points.
While sampling error can account
for any differences between the Gallup and ICR results, the numbers would appear to be virtually identical when the timing of the polls is taken into account — Gallup had Clinton with a bigger lead during the first few days of the ICR polling.
Other recent national polls generally have found Clinton at 50 percent to 55 percent and Dole in the middle 30 percent range among registered voters. An ABC News poll of likely voters Sept. 18-22 had the race at 52-40-4.
Toshiba shows off digital storage video disc
One-of-a-kind item may arrive in U.S. by end of the year
The Associated Press
TOKYO — Toshiba Corp. formally introduced its first digital video disc products yesterday —
the latest storage format for music and video — and said a DVD player might be available in the United States by the end of this year.
A DVD player for use with televisions will go on sale in Japan on Nov. 1 for 77,000 yen, or $700, the company said. But the company plans to coordinate U.S. sales with Warner Home Video Inc., a unit of Hollywood's largest movie studio.
Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., maker of Panasonic brand electronics, said last month that it would begin selling DVD players in Japan on Nov.1.
Sony Corp. has said it wouldn't make the players available until next year, citing uncertainties about copyright protection and the unavailability of video discs. However, the company also has had to adapt to different manufacturing and technical standards after reaching a design compromise with Toshiba last fall.
Since the new discs allow nearperfect reproductions, the film industry has been reluctant to produce movies on them without a copy-protection system.
However, Toshiba officials yesterday said that they hoped the issue would be resolved by November.
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