During the first big wave of the Alberta independence movement in the early 1980s, the most prominent intellectuals involved were Prof. Warren Blackman of the University of Calgary, and Dr. Ruth Gorman, a civil rights lawyer. Prof. Blackman was an economist who believed that Western Canada would flourish as an independent country. Dr. Gorman was more concerned that Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau’s new constitution would erode our rights and freedoms..The outrage felt in Alberta due to Trudeau’s National Energy Program (NEP) of 1980 is well known. There are still people around who can explain how the NEP led to personal or familial suffering. Trudeau’s socialistic ambitions with that policy were clear..But he also had another major initiative at the same time – to repatriate Canada’s constitution from Britain and add to it his so-called Charter of Rights and Freedoms. It was this constitutional agenda, more than anything else, that fueled Ruth Gorman’s opposition to Trudeau and his government..What’s particularly interesting is that Gorman was best known as an early feminist and a champion of the rights of First Nations people. She was one of only two women to graduate with law degrees from the University of Alberta in 1939. Later, she became a leading activist defending the treaty rights of Aboriginal Canadians, and helped them gain voting rights in 1960..Gorman received an honorary doctorate from the University of Calgary in 1966, and was named Alberta Woman of the Century in 1967..Despite her activism, Frits Pannekoek, in his book Behind the Man: John Laurie, Ruth Gorman, and the Indian Vote in Canada, writes that Gorman “was a Conservative and populist.” She was a friend of Prime Minister John Diefenbaker and a supporter of his government..When Pierre Trudeau initiated repatriation of the constitution, Gorman helped found the Western Canada Concept Party of Alberta (WCC). According to Pannekoek, “she became involved with the political party with a passion. She developed its constitution and did much of its legal work.”.Gorman gave speeches and wrote articles against Trudeau’s proposed constitution. In a 1981 speech, she called it “the most serious threat to our individual freedoms and our financial future that we have ever been called upon to face.”.Her main concern with the new constitution was the absence of property rights. The single biggest flaw, she explained, “is your loss of property rights. For 900 years, since Magna Charta which said ‘Every individual must be permanently secured in the free enjoyment of his life and property’ you have had this right. Now the guarantee for the individuals’ or the provinces’ property rights has been deliberately omitted from Canada’s new constitution.”.The wealth of Western Canada is rooted in its land and resources. The pioneers came to the West to get land and to own property for themselves. By the 1970s, the West’s resources were really beginning to pay off, but Gorman argued that Trudeau’s constitution posed a real threat to this prosperity: “The removal of property rights was deliberate. It is to legalize the robbery slowly and whenever necessary of the West’s only proven great asset to date, our property. This now is to be taken to assure the perpetuation of power for the central government at Ottawa, taken to pay Ottawa’s vast debts and to buy the votes to keep them in power.”.In a February 3, 1981, column for the Calgary Herald, Gorman wrote that “Most countries lose these rights when tanks rumble across their borders; you are losing yours by a few pages of print.”.Of course, by that time many Albertans were outraged at Trudeau and were attending meetings held by pro-independence groups. As Gorman explained, “The threat of becoming central Canada’s colony is causing protest meetings across the West already, and forcing people to think about the alternative of independence. Our ancestors came to this country because it was free. Our fathers, brothers, and sons fought for that freedom in two wars, and many died. Westerners now must make another stand for their freedoms. And you must do it now.”.Of course, the protest meetings came to an end and Trudeau got his repatriated constitution and his so-called Charter of Rights. But most people today have forgotten that in the early 1980s there was strong opposition to Trudeau’s Charter from many Canadians, especially in the West. Manitoba premier Sterling Lyon is particularly noteworthy in this regard. Those who think that Pierre Trudeau gave us our individual rights with his Charter need a history lesson..Despite the passage of time, Ruth Gorman’s words continue to resonate today. Westerners “must make another stand for their freedoms,” and they need to do it now. Protest meetings are once again being held across the province by concerned Albertans. A clear majority of Albertans voting for independence in a referendum could fulfill Ruth Gorman’s dream and the desire of many other freedom-lovers as well.
