OTTAWA - The committee studying Ottawa's constitutional proposals is dead unless the opposition parties drop their boycott, Constitutional Affairs Minister Joe Clark says.

In a scathing letter yesterday, Liberal Leader Jean Chretien blamed Clark and [Dorothy Dobbie], a Winnipeg Tory MP, for the "unmitigated disaster" and vowed "the Liberal party will not participate until there is new leadership."

In an unusual move, co-chair Claude Castonguay made it clear he feels the government is to blame for much of the committee's troubles by giving it an "almost impossible" task and putting "a lot of pressure" on Dobbie to complete it.