Quebec Canada Government

Herve Bertrand remembers the day when his life at a Quebec orphanage turned inside out. "On March 18, 1954, the nuns came in and said, 'From today, you are all crazy.' Everyone started to cry, even the nuns. Then everything changed: Our lessons stopped, and work--they called it therapy--began. I saw the bars go on the windows, the fences go up around the compound.

In the first legal ruling on Canada's most divisive issue, the Supreme Court said Thursday that Quebec--home to a powerful separatist movement--cannot secede without seeking the federal government's consent.

Quebec's separatists Tuesday were contemplating election results that exposed weaknesses in their movement and yielded a measure of optimism to Canadians--and Americans--who hope to see Canada remain united.

The Bloc Quebecois, a Quebec separatist party that forms the official opposition in Canada's Parliament, chose former Communist Gilles Duceppe as its new leader.

That cracking sound coming from north of the U.S. border isn't ice breaking in the spring thaw. It's the splintering of Canada's body politic. Members of Parliament return to work in Ottawa on Tuesday after an extended mid-winter recess and are still without a consensus on the best strategy for battling Quebec's resurgent separatists.

For a quarter of a century, Quebec delegations have worked as sort of shadow embassies and consulates to their Canadian counterparts. They have served to remind the world of Quebec's distinct place as the center of French language and culture in North America, to promote trade and investment, and, when a separatist government is in power in Quebec City as it is now, they tout the province's aspirations toward independence from the rest of Canada.