Canadian voters flock to the polls

OTTAWA (Reuter) - Canadians turned out in large numbers yesterday to vote in a national referendum on an agreement intended to settle a decades-old political dispute involving French-speaking Quebec.

More than 80 per cent of Canada's 18.5 million registered electors were expected to turn out to vote on the accord, which would grant Quebec special status to protect its language and culture, reform the country's appointed Senate and give native Indians and Inuit (Eskimos) the right to self-rule. But opinion polls in the last few days predicted that voters could overwhelmingly reject it in several provinces.