Quebec’s flamboyantly provocative proposed new “constitution” unveiled on Thursday reminds us, first and foremost, that actions have consequences. Motions, too.

Cast your mind back 19 years to November 2006. Bloc Québécois leader Gilles Duceppe was planning to table a motion in the House of Commons declaring Quebecers a nation. Stephen Harper’s federal Conservative government countered with its own motion asserting that “the Québécois form a nation within a united Canada.”

No one told then intergovernmental affairs minister Michael Chong this was coming down the pipe; he resigned on federalist principle. Indigenous groups were also unhappy about not being consulted. And the motion was very confusing to the point of meaninglessness: Who are “the Québécois”? And why are “the Québécois

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