New Brunswick is Now an Independent Nation

Unlike the sissy dependent nation that is Quebec, New Brunswick is now an independent nation. The new Liberal government in Fredericton voted in legislation proclaiming New Brunswick an independent nation. Outgoing Progressive Conservative leader Bernard Lord declared "c'est bon" when asked if he supported the legislation.

 

As there is no senate in New Brunswick, the law came into effect immediately.

 

Thu Dec 14, 8:45 PM

By Raf Casert

BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) - Suddenly and shockingly, Belgium came to an end late Wednesday.

State television broke into regular programming with an urgent bulletin: the Dutch-speaking half of the country had declared independence and the king and queen had fled. Grainy pictures from the military airport showed the dark silhouettes of a royal entourage boarding a plane.

Only after a half-hour did the station flash the message: "This is fiction."

It was too late. Many Belgians had already fallen for the hoax.

Frantic viewers flooded the call centre of the RTBF broadcaster that aired the stunt. Embassies called Belgian authorities to find out what was going on, while foreign journalists scrambled for confirmation.

"Ambassadors who were worried asked what they had to tell their capitals," said Belgian Senate chair Anne-Marie Lizin.

"This fiction was seen as a reality and it created a catastrophic image of the country."

The broadcaster RTBF defended the program, saying it showed the importance of debate on the future of Belgium. But the network won few friends.

Even the Jean-Claude Juncker, the prime minister from neigbouring Luxembourg, was angry and let it be know at the opening of the European Union summit.

"This is not the kind of issue you play around with," he said.

The RTBF's phoney newscast reported the "Flemish parliament has unilaterally declared the independence of Flanders" and King Albert and Queen Paola had left on the first air force plane available.

The broadcast showed jubilant demonstrators waving the yellow-and-black flag with the Flemish Lion outside the legislature. A small crowd of monarchists rallied outside the royal palace waving the Belgian flag.

Sending the royal family fleeing in record time also did not go down well at the palace, which said in a statement the hoax was in "bad taste."

"It is totally unacceptable," said Vice-Premier Didier Reynders.

The linguistic demons pitting Dutch-speaking Flemings in the North against the Francophones from Brussels and Wallonia in the South have been mostly quiet for the last two decades, ever since far-reaching autonomy was granted in the 1980s.

Yet the economic disparity between rich Flanders' wealth and struggling Wallonia has recently intensified the political debate. The North is demanding more autonomy, while the South clings to a unity that better spreads the economic spoils. The royal family is often portrayed as the glue that holds the country together.

Independence is not an aim of any of the major parties in power, whatever their linguistic preference.

It explains why the program was so widely condemned Thursday.

"It is abhorrent. It defies belief," said Yves Leterme, Minister-President of the Flemish region.

"It is a caricature of Flanders."

His Walloon counterpart, Elio di Rupo, was just as negative.

"Never in my long political life have I seen such worry. Anguish came from around the world," he said.

The Francophone minister who oversees the RTBF network called the top management of the company in for consultation, with rumours swirling some would be fired.

About the only people who enjoyed the program were the separatist far-right Flemish Interest party. It wants to dump the king and country and thought it could see a flash of its future.

"I want to congratulate the RTBF for this daring show," said Flemish Interest leader Filip Dewinter.

"It caused a shock in Wallonia where they come to the conclusion that the scenario of Flemish independence is no longer utopia," said the politician generally consider the biggest foe of Francophone Belgium.