The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour

MR. LEHRER: Good evening. Leading the news this Monday, there was violence in Jordan in the occupied territories after a former Israeli soldier murdered seven Palestinians, and the interim president of Romania won election by a landslide. We'll have the details in our News Summary in a moment. Robin.

MR. MacNeil: After the News Summary, we look at the new violence in Israel [FOCUS - AN EYE FOR AN EYE] with an Israeli and a Palestinian journalist, then Part 1 of our [SERIES - CANADA DIVIDED] series, Canada Divided, the constitutional crisis between English and French Canadians that threatens to tear the country apart. Tonight, the view from Quebec. And finally Los Angeles argues the pros and cons of year round schools [FOCUS - SCHOOL YEAR].NEWS SUMMARY

MR. LEHRER: A former Israeli soldier's killing of seven Palestinians triggered violence today in Jordan and the occupied territories. The man responsible appeared in court. He said his shooting spree was caused by emotional problems. In Jordan, a Palestinian gunman attacked a tourist bus. Nine Frenchmen and one Jordanian were injured. In the occupied territories, rock throwing Palestinians were met by Israeli troops. Three Palestinians were killed there today. Arab sources said more than 100 were injured. In Washington, State Department Spokesman Richard Boucher said the United States was disturbed by the number of Palestinians killed and wounded. He said, "We've repeatedly called on the government of Israel to exercise restraint in order to avoid heavy casualties." We'll have more on this story right after the News Summary. Robin.

MR. MacNeil: Romania's interim government is likely to become its first democratic government. According to exit polls, interim Pres. Ian Iliescu and his National Salvation Front Party won 89 percent of yesterday's vote, Romania's first democratic election in more than 50 years. We have a report from Bucharest by Paul Davies of Independent Television News.

MR. DAVIES: Celebrations began at the headquarters of the Salvation Front as the exit polls predicted more than 80 percent of votes had been captured by Front leader Ian Iliescu. As counting got underway, the election was being given qualified approval by international observers. Peasant Party Leader Ian Ratsu continued to complain of dirty tricks by the public.

MR. RATSU: Cheating, I mean, out and out cheating. That's what it is.

MR. DAVIES: In Bucharest University Square, scene of anti-Front demonstrations for more than a month now, the debate continued with more accusations of electoral malpractice by the Front.

CITIZEN: Starting from December, they started to lie and they lied us again and again.

MR. DAVIES: In their encampment in the square, the hunger strikers said they would continue their protest against the new administration they describe as merely the old regime under a different name.

MR. MacNeil: U.S. officials said a fuller assessment of the results must be made before the elections could be declared free, but a State Department spokesman said the problems appeared minimal.

MR. LEHRER: There was another political assassination in Colombia today. A senator was gunned down in the so-called drug capital of Medellin. His driver was also killed. He belonged to the country's ruling liberal party and was a close ally of Cesar Gavaria, the party's candidate in next Sunday's presidential elections.

MR. MacNeil: In South Africa, police clashed with black protesters in Thobong Township outside the Town of Welkom. Seven blacks were killed yesterday when police fired into a crowd leaving a township meeting. We have a report narrated by Roderick Pratt of Worldwide Television News.

MR. PRATT: The streets of Thobong were still tense the morning after the shootings as plumes of smoke rose above the township. The night of violence left the streets littered with burned out cars and buses, some all the mark of gunfire, their sides punctured with bullet holes. During the night, groups of demonstrators used burned out cars and buses to build barricades. Police said they were forced to open fire on the protesters after they attacked a police building and attempted to march to the nearby mining town of Welkom. The violence erupted after a rally attended by 60,000 people at which it was tentatively agreed to end a boycott of white businesses in Welkom. Demonstrators took to the streets once the meeting had ended. The boycott was mounted by the black community leaders in Thobong in response to action by an extreme white wing organization. The group set up white defense groups to patrol the streets of Welkom. The town has been the scene of repeated clashes between blacks and whites. Over the last few weeks, the conflict has claimed the lives of at least nine people. The victims come from both black and white communities.

MR. MacNeil: Violence also erupted in India's Northern State of Kashmir today. Security forces in the capital, Srinagar, opened fire on a crowd of about 100,000 Muslims. At least 40 people were reported killed and hundreds injured. The crowd was mourning the death of a leading Muslim cleric who was shot by unidentified gunmen earlier in the day. Government troops have occupied the city since January to control an Islamic separatist movement.

MR. LEHRER: The flood waters have receded in Hot Springs, Arkansas, but the tourist city was left full of mud and debris. Yesterday a six foot wall of water washed away bridges and cars. Many residents were forced onto the roofs of their homes. Nearly 13 inches of rain fell in a 24 hour period. Forecasters are predicting severe thunderstorms tonight.

MR. MacNeil: More than 80 AIDS activists were arrested today during a demonstration out the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland. Some 900 protesters were there to call for more AIDS research. Many wrapped themselves in red streamers to symbolize the government red tape which they said is slowing the search for a cure. That's our News Summary. Ahead on the Newshour, violence in Israel, Canada divided, and the controversy over year round schools. FOCUS - AN EYE FOR AN EYE

MR. LEHRER: The Israelis versus the Palestinians is our lead story tonight. Their year old struggle and confrontation made a new violent turn yesterday. Seven Arab workers were shot and killed by a former Israeli Soldier near Tela Vive. Palestinians on the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and inside Israel protested. Clashes with Israeli soldiers resulted in three more Arab deaths. There was also a revenge attack in Jordan against eight French tourists. We have a backgrounder narrated by Liz Donnelly of Independent Television News.

MS. DONNELLY: Not since the early days of the uprising have security forces inside Israel come under such heavy attack. This was the scene in Nazareth today. Large groups of youths stoned police from behind barricades of tires. So far more than 700 Palestinians have said to have been wounded since the trouble flared up yesterday. Ten have died. In the occupied territories Palestinians shut some businesses in protest of the killing of the seven who were murdered yesterday and those who dies subsequently. Palestinians went on a hunger strike asking for international intervention.

SARI NUSSEIBEH, Palestinian Community Leader: We have stated demands calling for international protection for our unarmed civilian population. We have also asked for the convening of the Security Council to come in and investigate these Israeli practices.

MS. DONNELLY: This is the man who has been arrested for shooting the seven Palestinians yesterday. 21 year old Ana Proper now charged with multiple murder is said to have told authorities that he did for emotional reasons. It was by all accounts the action of a deranged man. The Palestinians say the violence of their response is seen in a political context.

AHMED KHALIDI, Writer on Palestinian Affairs: I think that there is a feeling amongst Palestinians the Israeli's consider Palestinian life to be cheep. Not that we only have the continuous suppression of the Palestinians by the Israeli Army we have a context in which the Israeli Government is being formed, a new Israeli Government is being formed of the more extreme elements of the Israeli body of politics including groups that call for the transfer of the Arab population and expulsion from the lands that it occupies.

MS. DONNELLY: After the collapse of the coalition Israel's Prime Minister is in the process of trying to form a government. Today his interim Administration was struggling and appeared in control.

PRIME MINISTER SHAMIR: I hope that it will be under control in a few hours. I think that the great majority of the population of the Jewish population, of the Arab population are interested in some stability and are not interested in wildness.

MS. DONNELLY: In Israel and the occupied territories today the security forces tried to disperse crowds with rubber bullets. The casualty figure has lead to questions about Israel's handling of the situation. The International Red Cross has urged the occupying power to do everything possible to insure the life and physical integrity of the civilian population. The United States has also called for restraint. Israel's relationship with the United States is just under neath the surface under considerable strain. For the time being the American peace plan has been killed off with the Labor Parties failure to form a government. Yitzak Shamir look set to form Israel's next government. Not only opposed to peace talks he is likely to take a hard line with Former Defense Minister Ariel Sharon discredited during the war in Lebanon possibly back in a permanent post. Today Arafat appealed to the Americans.

MR. ARAFAT: I hope that Mr. Bush will do the same as Mr. Eisenhower has done before to make an end for this barbarian, fierce unhumanitarian occupation to the Holy Land, to the Palestinian people and the Palestinian lands.

MS. DONNELLY: Across the border in Jordan French tourists are recovering hospital after being attacked by an Arab gun man. To King Hussein who paid them a visit the fear this trouble will spread to within his borders. Just as the fear in Israel that once more the uprising is out of control.

MR. LEHRER: Now the views of two Middle East Journalists. Obed Ben Ami is an Israeli Radio Bureau Chief in Washington. He has also covered the Israeli Foreign Ministry and Prime Ministers Office. Ghassan Bishara is the Washington Bureau Chief of the Palestinian Newspaper Alfar which is published in East Jerusalem. Mr. Bishara why was the reaction so violent to the actions of one man who is considered to be a deranged man operating on his own.

MR. BISHARA: Well Jim, I think that it is not only to the action of quote a deranged man. For one we do not know that that man is deranged. We don't know that. Two I think the action that followed this quote deranged man in the Gaza Area and Western Bank killing another seven Palestinians. I mean these two things together with the general climate in Israel where the life of a Palestinian Arab is perceived to be so cheep that it really outraged Palestinians in general. One can go back to 1956 where 49 Palestinians were gunned down by Israeli troops inside Israel. Palestinian citizens in the state of Israel were cut down in October of 56. The Brigadier that gave the order to do the killing and shooting was sentenced symbolically to the equivalent of one Israeli penny.

MR. LEHRER: It was a natural reaction in other words?

MR. BISHARA: I would say it was a natural reaction considering the circumstances and reality of the Israeli treatments of the Palestinians.

MR. LEHRER: Did the reaction surprise you Mr. Ben Ami?

MR. BEN AMI: Yes, I think the reaction, of course nobody can justify killing of innocent people and no doubt this guy was a deranged man. He was dismissed from the Army due to some instability mental problems. But I think that the reaction of the Palestinians in the territories are gaining the opposite results. I mean if any one and I believe everybody in the Middle East, every body in Israel, everybody in the territories would like to come to a point of any political solution. Now it is impossible for any government including the Government of Israel to decide or to take any decisions under such a heavy pressure. And this is pressure is now in large part for more than two years. It is impossible.

MR. LEHRER: What about Mr. Bishara's point there was an explosion there ready to happen any how. It was triggered by this one man but it could have been triggered by something else. Is that essentially your point?

MR. BEN AMI: Jim let me tell you and Mr. Bishara that history is full of incidents. I am sure that you will remember in October of 85 an Egyptian soldier shot down seven Israelis including children. The Egyptian Authorities told us and told the World that he was deranged. He was under some psychiatric problems. I don't remember such a reaction, such violence, such rioting in Israel although there were children involved. There was seven exactly as these seven innocent Palestinians. This was a horrible incident and this was yesterday was a horrible incident. Now, of course, some one told me the other day that a Jewish mothers heart feelings are the same as a Palestinian mothers heart feelings and I agree but nobody can judge immediate response or immediate answer but every one must calm down. Without order nobody will make the correct decisions.

MR. LEHRER: Anybody going to calm down on the Palestinian side Mr. Bishara?

MR. BISHARA: I think what Hadad said may be correct. That killing of innocent people has to be condemned period, however, the killing if seven Palestinians and then the killing of another, actually 8. Seven died immediately and then another one died later in a hospital and later on in the very same day clashes with the Israeli occupation Army. It is not like in Egypt. It is a situation that since 1967 the Palestinian population in the West Bank and Gaza have been exposed to harsh reality of occupation. It is not really a civil administration as the Israeli government likes to think. It is a forced occupation.

MR. LEHRER: So there is more to it than just the violent acts of one man.

MR. BISHARA: Of course, of course.

MR. LEHRER: What happens now? Mr. Ben Ami says every body has to calm down. All the indications, all the reports that are coming out of that area tonight are just the opposite. Can we expect more violence in the next few days?

MR. BISHARA: Jim it is natural, obviously it is natural. I think that it is part and parcel to the resistance of the occupation that has been going on actively for two years and a half and actually since 1967. I think that the resistance to occupation the way I read it from Palestinians that I talk to and my own observation of it will continue undoubtedly until occupation ends and the Palestinians people have their place in the sun. What they are demanding is not to get rid of Israel and send Jewish people back to where they came from. They want to establish their own state to be created next to Israel and not in the place of Israel and the only obstacle to that thus far according to the Officials in the U.S. Government is Mr. Shamir and the Israeli Government.

MR. LEHRER: Mr. Ben Ami?

MR. BEN AMI: I would say look at what happened yesterday after this terrible incident in Tela Vive, Yasser Arafat called, ordered from Tunisia thousands of miles away Palestinians in the territories you demonstrate in every village and every city. And what will be the results. It is a spinning wheel. I mean they will demonstrate, the police will come and the army will come and this is an obligation of the World in the territories to maintain order. Otherwise no good results will come. If any one and I am repeating myself. If any one would like to come to the point of a reasonable political situation first of all we must maintain order in the area then believe me there is not a single Jewish or a single Israeli would like to be an occupier. All the occupiers and all this empire in the past just disappeared. Believe me. It effects very badly the early society. It effects badly the Israeli economy.

MR. LEHRER: What is the impact of this like to be on the political crisis that already exists in Israel. Shamir forming a new government. Is this going to give the hardliners an additional leg up?

MR. BEN AMI: Could you predict what is going to happen in the Middle East. Nobody can. But again, Jim, this is the only example of a democracy system in the Middle East. Can you give me an example of a democracy system among the Arab world? There is none even if you try very hard. No one. And democracy systems sometimes demand time. There is more than one opinion and it is very difficult for Shamir to form the coalition. Because on one hand he is the leader of a right wing party.

MR. LEHRER: My question is does the violence and reaction to yesterday's incident. In other words the relighting of the Intifada does that help him or hurt him in terms of forming a new government?

ODED BEN AMI, Israeli Journalist: It hurt him to form a reasonable coalition and it will be very easy now for the extreme rightist to affect the coalition. This is why I do hope and I think everybody hope that things will go down back to what happened during the last two, three months when the Intifada was very calm and if it will be calm again and quiet again, I think it will be much easier for Shamir to try to form up a new national government unity.

MR. LEHRER: Does that make sense to you?

GHASSAN BISHARA, Palestinian Journalist: Unfortunately, no, not at all. I think, I think Mr. Shamir's attempts to form a government by playing to right wing elements, by paying a million point eight government money to take over a monastery, St. John's Hospice in East Jerusalem, are all of these, are attempts to win the support of the right wingers in Israel, and he actually plays this thing. I mean, it is known in the history, the short history of the Israeli government that prime ministers will do such things in order to attract the attention of their supporters en masse, and I think such action where he stood to the Palestinians and sent his troops out again to kill another seven Palestinians, and four by the way today, I mean, three were killed in Gaza, and a woman was beaten up to death in Gaza, this is today, and about a thousand wounded.

MR. LEHRER: A thousand wounded. The wires say a hundred.

MR. BISHARA: A hundred and fourteen. A hundred and fourteen today and six hundred and fifty --

MR. BEN AMI: It's much less than one thousand.

MR. BISHARA: No, 650 yesterday and 140 actually according to my sources in Jerusalem, and some people actually add more to that.

MR. LEHRER: I see.

MR. BISHARA: So, I mean, if it is a thousand or nine hundred and fifty or eight hundred and fifty, that's not the issue. The issue that the Israeli government rather then, in my view, sent its troop to maintain order, I agree with you, but we have witnessed many governments around the world that may, we may not call them democratic, as you call Israel, trying to hold and to establish, re-establish order without using live ammunition and killing of people. We've seen that lately in South Korea.

MR. LEHRER: What about that, Mr. Ben Ami, the army comes and people, it's the demonstrators who die?

MR. BEN AMI: This is the way. I mean, demonstrators coming with stones, the army and the police are coming with rifles and this is the name of the game. But let me remind you what happened lately in Jordan, in the other side of the Jordan River, which is the border between Israel and Jordan. There was a march of Palestinian demonstrators and the Jordanian army in order to stop them to cross the river and to cross the border to Israel, they just used their rifles and they shot them.

MR. LEHRER: That was about a week ago, ten days ago.

MR. BEN AMI: Okay. So I didn't hear anyone blaming the Jordanians of killing and injuring.

MR. BISHARA: But they did not kill. That's the point I made. For one, they did not kill. No one was killed.

MR. BEN AMI: More than 100 were sent to clinics.

MR. BISHARA: Fortunately they did not make it to the Israeli side of the border, because knowing how the Israelis are happy with guns, I think they probably would have killed more of them than the Jordanians have wounded. I am not here to defend the acts of any other governments. As a matter of fact, I may be harsher on many of them than you. We are talking about a country that you, yourself, call a democracy.

MR. BEN AMI: It is.

MR. BISHARA: A country that receives from the United States an average of $3 1/2 billion a year under certain terms which are legislated by our Congress, U.S. Congress. We would like that government to act in accordance with those minimum norms.

MR. LEHRER: You are an Israeli, you are a Palestinian. You are both --

MR. BISHARA: I'm not an Israeli by the way. I was born --

MR. LEHRER: Both of you are also both journalists and I take it from what you are saying and what you have just demonstrated, there is no reason to expect anything other than more of what we saw today.

MR. BEN AMI: No, I still think that we still have some very good hope, that if the Arab leaders all over the Arab world will act reasonably and will signal the Palestinians in the territories, calm down, give this governmenta chance, there is a chance for hope.

MR. BISHARA: Jim, we actually, we really know since the PLO initiative, it is the Israeli government that has stopped the American initiative, actually its own election initiative from going ahead.

MR. LEHRER: We have to leave it there. Thank you both very much.

MR. MacNeil: Still ahead on the Newshour, Canada divided and should schools be year round. SERIES - CANADA DIVIDED

MR. MacNeil: Next tonight we begin a special series on Canada, and a quiet, domestic argument that has turned noisy and bitter enough to awaken the neighbors. For months, the world has been fascinated with the possibility that the Soviet empire may be coming apart at the seams, but Americans may not have heard the fabric of nationhood tearing much closer to home. Canada, America's closest and most important neighbor, now faces what many see as the gravest crisis in her history, the possibility of breaking into two nations, French Quebec and the rest, and the rest, some political leaders say, would have no choice but to join the United States. But English Canadians have spent two centuries resisting that fate, being absorbed by the United States, and they've spent at least two decades promoting the ideal of a bi-lingual, bi-cultural nation, French and English, a model of harmony for the world. What has happened? And is Canada really about to break up? Tonight and for the next four nights, the Newshour examines those questions. From the earliest settlements, Eastern North America was a battleground between France and England. The British finally won in 1759 when the British General Wolf defeated the French General Mancam on the plains of Abraham at Quebec City. A year later, the French here in Montreal surrendered, but the victorious British said the French could keep their language, their laws, and their customs. And Canada, the nation that evolved here after the French Revolution, was founded on that principle, two cultures, French and English, with equal rights. Canada prospered, but prosperity favored English Canada, which controlled the banks, the railroads and industry. But after World War II, a new generation of French Canadians demanded an end to second class citizenship and the federal government launched a new program to promote a bi-lingual Canada. Proficiency in French was made obligatory for promotion in the civil service and armed forces. Canada is one of the few countries where you can hear two languages in the federal parliament. [SESSION IN PARLIAMENT]

MR. MacNeil: A more visible signal of change came when Canada jettisoned the old red ensign with its British associations for a new maple leaf flag to promote a new national unity. There was a wave of political and economic nationalism fed in part by reaction to the turmoil of the Vietnam era in the United States. One political scientist said the Vietnamization of America led to the Canadianization of Canada. That wasn't enough for some Quebec nationalists. There were terrorist bombings and a national emergency when they kidnapped and murdered a cabinet minister. Pres. DeGaulle fed the rising spirit of French Canada by declaring, "Long live free Quebec." The same spirit raised a charismatic journalist, Rene LaVec, into the premiership of Quebec province in 1976 with a pledge to seek some form of separation from Canada.

MR. LaVEC: The one thing which is clear is that there will be a definite referendum process on the yes or no basis in the sense of getting out of this machi, which has been going on federal, provincial for something like 30 years.

MR. MacNeil: But he was disappointed. In 1980 referendum, Quebecers voted 2 to 1 to reject separatism and Canadian unity seemed secure. Campaigning against separatism was another charismatic Quebecer, the federal prime minister, Pierre Trudeau.

MR. TRUDEAU: These people in Quebec and in Canada want to split it up. They want to take it away from their children. They want to break it down. No, that's our answer.

MR. MacNeil: Two years later, Trudeau accomplished another symbolic act. Canada's constitution was an act of the British parliament. In 1982, Trudeau brought it back to Canada, but Quebec refused to sign the new constitution. Trudeau's critics said he left a ticking time bomb. Trudeau's successor, another bilingual Quebecer, Brian Mulroney, promised to bring Quebec into the fold. North of the federal capital, Ottawa, is a resort called Meech Lake. Ironically, it's named after an American, Asa Meech, who came to Canada 200 years ago for peace and quiet because he couldn't stand the squabbling over the U.S. Constitution. In April 1987, Prime Minister Mulroney called the premiers of the 10 provinces to Meech Lake and presented a formula Quebec would accept. Miraculously, in only 10 hours of talks, they all agreed.

PRIME MINISTER MULRONEY: Today we close one chapter in Canadian history and begin another.

MR. MacNeil: The Meech Lake accord contained five amendments to the Constitution. The most important said Quebec is a distinct society within Canada. Quebec also got a say in immigration policy and three of the nine seats on the Supreme Court. Like other provinces, it could opt out of federal social programs and could veto future constitutional changes. To make it binding, the federal parliament in ten provinces had to ratify the accord by June 23, 1990, a month from now. It all looked easy. Ottawa passed Meech Lake and so did eight provinces. But held out, Manitoba, and New Brunswick, and a new government in New Foundland withdrew ratification. Meanwhile the Quebec government had passed a law saying all outdoor signs had to be in French only. The Supreme Court said the bill violated the rights of the 19 percent of Quebecers who speak English and other languages. But Quebec invoked a provision of the very constitution it rejects and thumbed its nose at Ottawa. So critics of Meech Lake said, you see, you let Quebec become a distinct society and they trample on human rights. Quebecers began saying, if you don't ratify Meech Lake, it shows you don't want us in Canada. An Ontario town, Sous St. Marie, passed a law making English the official language and Quebecers said, you see, bilingualism is a sham anyway. Then some demonstrators in Ontario desecrated the Quebec flag.

CITIZEN: But here in Ontario, we got no respect for the Quebec flag.

MR. MacNeil: Emotions in Quebec rose even higher. Now the polls show more and more Quebecers favoring separation. Prime Minister Mulroney trying to rally support for Meech Lake, told Canadians if Quebec leaves, Canada will drift into the arms of the United States. The premier of Nova Scotia, John Buchanan, said that if Quebec left, the four Atlantic provinces would have little choice but to join the U.S. Business leaders started saying Quebec could make it as an independent nation. Suddenly this spring, Mulroney's attempt to save the marriage with Quebec has become grounds for possible divorce. The argument has shocked Canadians for its passion and bad temper. Even moderate Quebecers began charging that English Canada never took the bilingual promise seriously. Even moderate AngliphoneCanadians began suspecting a Quebec plot to force a breakup of Canada. That seems far fetched but it's become thinkable in a way that was always unthinkable before and it's forced Canadians to scratch again the itch that never goes away. Without Quebec, what is it that holds Canada together, that makes it unique and different from the United States? This week we go to four Canadian provinces, key players in the crisis, for answers to those questions. Tonight we start where it all starts, in Quebec, itself. No wonder many people think Quebec could make it as a separate nation. It covers 1/2 million square miles from the U.S. border to the arctic and Hudson's Bay. It teems with resources. Gigantic hydro projects support surplus electric power to the U.S. Its forests send newsprint to American newspapers. It makes subway cars for New York City and high tech products for the world market. The provincial capital, Quebec City, sits on dramatic bluffs high over the St. Lawrence River. Here the descendants of the French colonists conquered by England passed the laws that preserve and promote their French heritage. Montreal, the largest French speaking city outside France, presides over an economy already greater than those of nations like Austria and Denmark. This prosperous economy is now run by French speaking Quebecers who live in a distinctive culture. Quebec has its own books, movies, plays, poets, TV serials, night life, pop music stars and songwriters. This new hit music video by a Quebec rap group is about the dangers facing the French language.

MUSIC VIDEO SEGMENT: Do you remember when we were French?

MR. MacNeil: Quebec often battles with the federal government over the measures it takes to protect its language. Recently, it outlawed the use of English on outdoor signs over the objection of Canada's Supreme Court and some schools are trying to prohibit children from using English on school grounds. It's all part of what Quebec views as the battle against the threat of being drowned in the Anglo culture of North America.

MALE CITIZEN: [Speaking through Interpreter] I was brought up in Montreal and raised in an era when we could not manage to be served in French in the stores. We learned finally, very early in life, that we were different from the others. We have white skin, but we are, to a certain point, like other minorities. We were, during many decades, a people with a lower class in this country. I think it is a mentality that has changed now. Quebecers are a lot more proud, but there are still, we are a different people; that's for sure.

FEMALE CITIZEN: [Speaking through Interpreter] We have very distinct characteristics in literature, dance, theatre. And we recognize each other as Quebecois, when we travel in the world. We recognize each other by our accents. We do not identify with France, nor, at least not any longer, with Canadians.

MR. MacNeil: The man navigating between Quebecers who want their province to be a separate nation and those who want it to be recognized as a distinct society within Canada is Quebec's premier, Robert Bourassa. I spoke with him in his office in Montreal. Premier Bourassa, thank you for joining us. Why does Quebec need additional constitutional guarantees when Quebec has done so well, it has flourished, especially the last 10 years in Canada as it is?

PREMIER ROBERT BOURASSA, Quebec: Quebec is a distinct society in many respects. You know, de facto we are a distinct society.

MR. MacNeil: Already a distinct society?

PREMIER BOURASSA: We have the civil code. We are a French speaking province in Canada, the only one, the only government in North America, if you have 50 states, which is responsible to a French speaking majority. So we want what we have, in fact. We have now problems with demography. Our birth rate is relatively low compared with thirty years or twenty years ago, so we want some specific powers in immigration. We have it now on the administrative ground. We want them in constitutions.

MR. MacNeil: Powers to do what?

PREMIER BOURASSA: To make the selection of new immigrants, because we want to be able to have immigrants which could be immigrated to the French speaking majority since our birth rate is much lower than before.

MR. MacNeil: Do you agree with people in, some people in English Canada, that part of the negative reaction now to Meech Lake was due to your law making English language signs in Quebec illegal and your use of the notwithstanding clause to override the Supreme Court ruling?

PREMIER BOURASSA: It could be a factor, but again, we need to be understood, as I used to say. I hope they will understand that Quebec, the minority, the English speaking community of Quebec, is not in the same position and the French minorities in the rest of Canada. Just to give you a fact, for instance, the French speaking minorities in the rest of Canada are assimilated up to 60 percent in some provinces, there is assimilation of the French speaking minority outside Quebec. In Quebec, the English speaking community, on the contrary, even if it's a minority, is assimilating non- Anglophone because of the power of attraction of English in North America.

MR. MacNeil: The language point is crucial. With French Canadians outside Quebec being assimilated or absorbed by English culture, Premier Bourassa fears that even inside Quebec, new immigrants will be drawn to English, not French. That would further dilute French culture.

PREMIER BOURASSA: So what I'm saying to English Canada, try to understand the situation; we are not in the same situation you are.

MR. MacNeil: But, excuse me, it looked to some in English Canada as though you were thumbing your nose at them and also overriding the human rights, the minority rights of English speaking people here guaranteed in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

PREMIER BOURASSA: Yeah, but since this is not concerning a fundamental right, it's not the freedom of religion, it's only a question of external signs, because we want for new immigrants which are coming by thousands and thousands that they should realize that they are in a province where there is a French speaking majority, so it's not a fundamental freedom.

MR. MacNeil: Are you one of those who believes that Quebec would be viable as an independent nation in the world economy if it came to that?

PREMIER BOURASSA: If you look into the general context, many experts will say that we have a relatively strong economy, but I believe that Canada, the Canadian common market is an asset for Quebec and whatever happened on constitutional grounds I don't know, as I told you my first choice is clearly to stay within Canada, but whatever happened on constitutional grounds, I believe that all Canadians, all Quebecers, most of them would not like to compromise the economic stability of Canada. I believe they can believe that the international investors, including the American investors, could be convinced that whatever happened, they will always be welcome in Quebec.

MR. MacNeil: You used to be known as a federalist. Are you still a federalist, or are you now yourself, a Quebec nationalist?

PREMIER BOURASSA: Well, I believe that the federal system was a good system for Quebecers and is still a good system. Of course, we have the problem with the federal deficit and all those questions, like the rate of interest, but this is not new. But Quebecers want to be accepted, want to be recognized as they are, and why it is difficult to predict what will happen if Meech Lake is not accepted, is Quebecers will say, we came with the most moderate proposals, meaning, in fact, are you accepting us as we are, and this is not accepted, so there is now a great disillusion, profound disappointment, sadness in many places, when they realize that in English Canada they are not very well accepted as they are, as a distinct society.

MR. MacNeil: So when newspapers and we on television talk about a crisis, is this in your view, is this a danger of Canada breaking up?

PREMIER BOURASSA: I believe that if Meech Lake is not accepted, you will have certainly an important constitutional crisis because Quebec will not accept to go back to the bargaining table to discuss constitutional issues. But let's hope it will be ratified.

MR. MacNeil: Besides the value, economic value, what is the spiritual value to you as a Quebecer in being Canadian?

PREMIER BOURASSA: Well, I always said that Canada is one of the greatest countries of the world because it's a country of tolerance, it's a country of social progress, it's a country of cultural diversity. I think we are one of the most privileged countries of the world and that's why a majority of Quebecers, a clear majority of Quebecers, would like to stay and prosper within that country and work with the other groups, the other community in this country.

MR. MacNeil: When you hear some English Canadian politicians talking about the threat that Canada could break up and inevitably, parts would then have to join the United States, what do you think?

PREMIER BOURASSA: Well, I think that let's work harder to avoid that. I think a lot of people outside Canada will have difficulties to understand if such a situation happens that such a privileged country will fall apart on let's say constitutional theory. But I think Quebec did their very best. Personally I think I took a risk with history in coming with such proposals, such a policy. I could be accused of complacency.

MR. MacNeil: Complacency.

PREMIER BOURASSA: Complacency, because, you know, as I told you , all my predecessors were much more demanding than I was, so even if the minimum, when the minimum is rejected, I don't think Quebec could be considered responsible.

MR. MacNeil: Let me ask you this. Some people say this isn't a real crisis, this is a political frenzy that has been whipped up by politicians trying to scare others into supporting you and Meech Lake, principally you and Mr. Mulroney, trying to scare the other premiers into supporting Meech Lake.

PREMIER BOURASSA: You seem to be quite aware of Quebec history and Canadian history and the last modern history. In the '60s, question came, in the Canadian debate, what does Quebec want? For 30 years, they were, English Canada was saying that. What does Quebec want? When I was re-elected for the third time, in '85, I said, you said, what does Quebec want, that five things which you had offered to us before, my friends, so I'm not asking for the moons. I'm asking for things which had been offered to Quebec, and now after three years, after it had been ratified by all the premiers and the prime minister in a solemn ceremony in Ottawa, he said, no, not all, but a good proportion of English Canadian, no way, so how do you feel we should react to that?

MR. MacNeil: How do you react to it?

PREMIER BOURASSA: I told you that I can only react with sadness and disappointment, but still working as much as I can to save the deal and save the country and the national unity.

MR. MacNeil: Well, Mr. Bourassa, thank you very much for joining us.

PREMIER BOURASSA: I was very pleased to answer your questions.

MR. MacNeil: Tomorrow night the view from one of the three premiers saying no to the Meech Lake accord. New Foundland, the poor Atlantic province, thinks the cost of keeping Quebec happy is too high. FOCUS - SCHOOL YEAR

MR. LEHRER: Finally tonight year round schools. This is the time of year when most students eagerly await the beginning of a three month summer vacation, but in some parts of the country, the long break is becoming a fading tradition. Correspondent Jeffrey Kaye of KCET-Los Angeles reports.

MR. KAYE: It's 7:15 in the morning outside Langdon Avenue Elementary School in Sepulveda, a suburb of Los Angeles. The school is located in a low income, predominantly Latino area. Most of the kids assembling here live within walking distance of the school but they don't take classes at Langdon, there's no room. For them, Langdon is a bus stop. Each school day, 500 children are bused away from Langdon to schools that are less crowded. Because so many schools face chronic overcrowding, school buses cris-cross Los Angeles on trips of up to an hour each way.

SPOKESPERSON: If this were the board of a publicly held company, the shareholders would have fired you years ago.

MR. KAYE: The LA school board's efforts to cope with the overcrowding problem have led to acrimonious meetings. Embattled school board pres. Jackie Goldberg says the district's exploding school enrollment has turned into a crisis.

JACKIE GOLDBERG, President, Los Angeles School Board: We grew by 15,500 students this fall in the first month of the traditional calendar year. We're running out of elementary seats even busing students. We've been busing students for several years and the numbers are now up to twenty-two to twenty-five thousand children a day and the distances are getting much further. So we need to find ways to increase the amount of space.

MR. KAYE: Because space is a scarce resource, LA's 600 schools have been ordered to increase capacity by 23 percent over the next three years. One hundred schools like Langdon Elementary that are especially overcrowded must meet a deadline of this July.

PRINCIPAL: The reason I'm calling this meeting is I want to talk to the parents about some of the changes that are going to occur next school year.

MR. KAYE: At meetings with parents, Langdon principal Daniel Bolgarama explained the pressing need for more class space.

PRINCIPAL: With the increased enrollment, we can keep more children here and keep them off the buses and make it better for those children that they don't have to ride the buses.

MR. KAYE: This summer, Langdon will become a year round school, joining a hundred other Los Angeles schools already on a year round scheduled. The year round calendar will allow Langdon to increase enrollment by dividing students into four groups or tracks.

PRINCIPAL: So what we have are four tracks, A, B, C, and D. You see how they go left to right, A, B, C, D. So say 325 students, these are not exact, 325 students here, 325 here --

MR. KAYE: At any time three of the groups will be on campus, one track on vacation. Students will have two six week vacations instead of the traditional three month summer holiday. Mothers here worried that the new schedule might post child care problems. "I have three children," said one parent. "I won't be able to afford day care for every child and I won't be able to take off work every few months to take care of my kids."

PRINCIPAL: I don't have any answers to that question but the best thing I could say is the district, yes, the district is going to have to look at that problem and work with some of the agencies, like if it's the YMCA or YWCA or the Youth Service Program.

MR. KAYE: In the interest of uniformity, all students in Los Angeles will be on a year round calendar by July 1991 whether or not their neighborhood schools are overcrowded. Dearborn Street School, for example, is under capacity so it can accept students from overcrowded schools, including one busload of kids from Langdon. The fact that Dearborn School will eventually switch to a year round calendar angered several neighborhood parents who send their children here.

PARENT: Good evening. My name is Rita Bufalino. I'm a parent at Dearborn Street School. We, the public, have been told --

MR. KAYE: One mother presented petitions she had helped gather.

PARENT: The proclamations state that our children will boycott schools rather than suffer in overheated classrooms this summer or any summer.

MR. KAYE: Opponents of year round schools have lodged a catalog of complaints against the plan. Chief gripes concern the need for air conditioning during the summer and the fear of having children from the same household on different tracks.

DEBBIE POLSON, Parent: I have a child in fifth grade, one in third, one in second, and one in kindergarten, so I could conceivably have child in high school, two in junior high school, and one still in elementary school. We would never be a family again. We would just be segmented parts living in the same house.

RITA MORROW, Parent: It gets up to a hundred degrees many days in July and August here in Northridge and the inside temperatures, believe it or not, are hotter than the outside temperatures when you're putting thirty or thirty-five people into a classroom.

MR. WOHLERS: I know that schools will not be air conditioned before they change to year round.

MR. KAYE: Gordon Wohlers is responsible for implementing the year round plan for LA schools.

GORDON WOHLERS, Los Angeles School District: Our goal is to get them air conditioned as quickly as possible, so that we air condition schools in the hotter climactic areas, the San Fernando Valley being an example of that, in the first priority.

MR. KAYE: No guarantee when that's going to happen?

MR. WOHLERS: No, no guarantees when that's going to happen. Again, a function of funding from the state.

MR. KAYE: The objections raised by suburban parents are not new ones. South Gate High School has been on a year round schedule since 1981, when overcrowded schools became a particular problem in the inner-city. South Gate Principal Raul Moreno said parents voiced similar concerns at that time.

RAUL MORENO, Principal, South Gate High: The district made a commitment to the community as far as their heat reduction programs. Unfortunately they weren't realized as soon as they had promised them, but they are in place. Our school is totally air conditioned. Despite the fact that it was warm, students did survive. As far as the students being on different tracks, schools have always done their best to accommodate the families. In some cases, it's been impossible because of personal choices of students to take certain classes.

MR. KAYE: Moreno points out that the traditional school calendar is old fashioned, a throwback to agrarian economies when children were needed to work in the fields during the summer. Student government sponsor Steve Rich also teaches history classes. He feels students retain more without a long summer vacation.

STEVE RICH, Teacher: Kids tend to forget less. In my history classes, I found that to be true. More kids have an opportunity to participate in more activities because the school's running all year round, and that opens up additional activities for a lot of kids.

MR. KAYE: At Langdon School, teachers and administrators also feel the year round schedule will enable them to deal with other concerns, problems highlighted by the presence of gang graffiti.

PRINCIPAL: The Daily News had an article where they stated the 10 most dangerous streets in the valley and this was listed as No. 3, this street back here. A lot of heavy drug dealing still goes on, a lot of gang activity. Between this side and this side of the school, gangs go back and forth. It's the same gang. Some of them live here and some live there.

MR. KAYE: Are elementary school kids involved in gang activity?

PRINCIPAL: A lot of their siblings.

MR. KAYE: Boldarama sees a year round schedule as an opportunity. He feels his school can provide a haven.

PRINCIPAL: More and more the school's becoming more of a social welfare type of institution, because the parents have somebody to talk to during the summer about the gang problems. They have somewhere to go. They have somewhere. When they need counseling, they come here and I can refer them to other outside agencies.

MR. KAYE: But several parents of students at Dearborn say they don't have such needs. They suggest that instead of imposing a year round schedule on the entire school district officials should construct classrooms in neighborhoods where they're needed.

RITA MORROW, Parent: We object to the fact that the school district is mishandling this problem and not building schools for them. They deserve schools as much as our children deserve schools in their neighborhood that they can walk to. This problem has been going on for nine years in the district and the State of California have ignored it and we resent that.

JACKIE GOLDBERG, President, Los Angeles School Board: There is not a message coming to us from the state and federal level that they are ever going to be willing to spend the money it will take to build enough schools for this growing population.

MR. KAYE: So this is not simply a Los Angeles issue?

MS. GOLDBERG: Not at all. You're going to see this in all of the states, probably in the sunbelt where there is growth population, certainly in all states that have as high a birth rate as our particular state does.

MR. KAYE: Goldberg says she is mindful of the hot summer temperatures so she and other Los Angeles officials are pushing for bond measures to finance air conditioning. Meanwhile, the organized opposition to year round schooling that began with a bang in Los Angeles has fizzled to a whimper as critics reluctantly accept the inevitability of the new schedule. RECAP

MR. MacNeil: Again the main stories of this Monday, violence erupted in Jordan and the occupied territories after yesterday's murder of seven Palestinians by a former Israeli soldier. Three more Palestinians were killed today by Israeli troops. Also a man attacked a tour bus in Jordan. Nine French tourists and one Jordanian were injured. And the interim president of Romania won yesterday's election by a landslide. Good night,Jim.

MR. LEHRER: Good night, Robin. We'll see you tomorrow night. Thank you and good night.