Questions+for+Post+WWII+era

A referendum is a national vote by Canadians on an issue. There were three referenda that happened that had to do with Quebec. The first was in 1980 when people voted to give sovereignty (independence) to Quebec. The vote was 60% against and 40% in favor. Since it failed, Quebec was angry and did not sign the Constitution Act in 1982. The second referendum was in 1995. Since Quebec did not sign the Constitution Act, the government had to find ways to get Quebec back into the Constitution. Two attempts were Meech Lake Accord and Charlottetown Accord (decided by a referendum), both of which failed because people did not want to see Quebec as a distinct society. They said that Quebec was the same as any other province. This angered Quebecers and they had another referendum in 1995 on sovereignty again. The vote was extremely close: 49 to 51 against it and so they are still part of Canada. To this day, Quebec is not part of the 1982 Constitution.
 * Question #1: What is a referendum?**

The Berlin Wall was a physical wall that went up to divide East Berlin from West Berlin. The Wall went up after the Berlin blockade which occurred because Soviets wanted to take over West Berlin and stopped all food and services from getting to West berlin so that West Berliners would surrender to USSR, but Americans continued to fly in food, feul etc. to help out West Berlin which was democratic and under the control of U.S., Britain and France. Finally, the blockage came to an end. People were escaping to West Berlin because they did not want to be under totalitarian rule. To stop them from doing this, the USSR built a wall with guards at each checkpoint. If East Berliners tried to go over it, their orders were to shoot and kill.
 * Question #2: What is the difference between the Berlin Wall and the Iron Curtain?**

The Iron Curtain was a term coined by Winston Churchill to describe the geographical area of the USSR. It was an invisible boundary that separated the East from the West. The hope of the U.S. was to keep communism contained behind this Iron Curtain. Iron meant strength -- nothing could get in and nothing could get out.

In 1967, the Royal Commission on Status of Women was a mandate was to investigate current status of Canadian women and recommend reforms in areas of federal jurisdiction. The Canadian government released report in 1970 which included over 100 recommendations for changes to address women’s issues. For the first time, national attention drawn to women’s issues - encouraged network of women’s organizations to press for implementation of recommendations. Given the interest in social issues, Trudeau’s government had passed the Omnibus Bill in 1969. The bill made a number of changes to the Criminal Code (omnibus = including or covering many things). Some changes included decriminalization of homosexual acts, loosening of restrictions on abortion laws (more rights to women), loosening of divorce laws (more rights to women), legalization of lotteries and breathalyzer tests, permitting of sale and distribution of information about contraceptives (more rights to women) and new gun ownership. restrictions.
 * Question 3: What was the Royal Commission on the Status of Women? What was the Omnibus Bill?**

Yes. Free Trade was created in 1988 between Canada and the U.S. They would become trading partners and would allow American companies to be opened up in Canada. This caused a lot of controversy and many Canadians felt that smaller Canadian companies woud be forced to shut down (many actually did). Some also thought that the connection to the U.S. economy would mean one step closer to U.S. taking over Canada. Obviously that did not happen. Free Trade meant that there would be no tariffs on U.S. products and so that would mean more American companies would come into Canada. That has definitely happened -- e.g. Walmart, Second Cup, huge chains of retail stores etc.
 * Question 4: Was FTA different from NAFTA?**

NAFTA was in the 1990s and this stood for North American Free Trade Agreement and it was similar to FTA but now it also included free trade with Mexico.