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Tag Archives: Montreal

Scots in Canada, cont’d

30 Sunday May 2021

Posted by michelinewalker in Canadian History, Fur Trade, Quebec

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

Denis Monière, Fur traders, Idéologie de la collaboration, James McGill, Montreal, Simon McTavish, The Beaver Club, The Château Clique, the Golden Square Mile. Assimilation, the North West Company

Ravenscrag, built for Sir Hugh Allan in 1863 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Saga continues…

Although France and Scotland had joined forces under the Auld Alliance, the relationship between the French in Canada and Canadians of Scottish descent could not be as cordial as the bonds uniting France and Scotland. The French in Canada were a conquered nation. They had lost the battle. But let us look at the Scots.

The Fur Trade

  • Scots as Fur Traders
  • the North West Company
  • Montreal as centre of the fur trade in Canada

It is as fur traders that the Scots in Canada gained prominence.

The North West Company, founded in 1779, was a Montreal-based Company that competed with the Hudson’s Bay Company, chartered in 1670. Most partners, or shareholders, were Scots. They had mansions built in Montreal’s Golden Square Mile. Sir Hugh Allan, a shipping magnate, whose mansion is shown at the top of this post, was not associated with the North West Company. He brought immigrants to Canada and lived at Ravenscrag, located in Montreal’s Golden Square Mile. Ravenscrag was donated to McGill University in 1940. In fact, James McGill endowed McGill University in his will. Nor’Westers later moved to Westmount, in Montreal. They socialized at the Beaver Club, a Gentleman’s Club, founded in 1785. French-Canadians who had remained in the fur trade after New France fell to England were senior members at the Beaver Club (see Beaver Club, Wikipedia).

The most prosperous shareholders of the North West Company were not French-speaking Canadians. In the first half of the 19th century, very few, if any, French-speaking Canadians lived in the Golden Square Mile or Westmount, except the French-Canadian wives of fur traders. James McGill (1744-1813) married Charlotte Trottier Desrivières, née Guillimin, a widow, and Simon McTavish (1750-1804) married Marguerite Chaboillez, but these marriages did not reflect a political choice. Partners were Englishmen and English Canadians. Benjamin Frobisher (1742-1787) was English and Joseph Frobisher (1748-1810) was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia. He was an English Canadian. The main shareholders of the North West Company (la Compagnie du Nord-Ouest), were Scots.

The Château Clique

  • James McGill & the Quebec Act
  • Guy Carleton’s Quebec Act revisited
  • the assimilation of the French through Union Acts
  • the abolition of Seigneuries, achieved in 1854
  • responsible government
  • idéologie de la collaboration

Several North West Company shareholders or partners were members of Lower Canada’s Château Clique. La Clique du Château was un Parti bureaucrate, a bureaucracy, also known as the British Party or the Tory Party. The Château Clique had its counterpart in Upper Canada, called the Family Compact. A few Seigneurs and French-speaking Canadians were members of the Château Clique. Denis Monière refers to an idéologie de la collaboration. The French who were not returning to France were cutting their personal losses. So was the Clergy.

Il faut dire aussi que les rapports entre ces deux groupes sont facilités par une origine de classe identique.

Denis Monière [1]

[One must also say that the relationship between these two groups is made easier because they originate from identical classes.]

So, how could these threatened classes oppose strongly and visibly a group promoting the assimilation of French-speaking Canadians (union acts) and frowned upon a responsible government. One suspects that many saw clear and present danger, and went into hiding. In fact, James McGill (1744-1813) opposed the Quebec Act of 1774. (See James McGill, Dictionary of Canadian Biography.) The Quebec Act can be viewed as a wish to protect the British in Canada from an alliance between the defeated French and the rebellious colonies to the south. But it may also have earned Guy Carleton and the British in Canada decades of peaceful coexistence in the country Guy Carleton had governed. The Quebec Act was conciliatory. French-speaking Canadians were allowed to keep their language, their religion, their Seigneuries and their Code civil. Although the dreaded Act of Union was passed in 1840, it failed to assimilate French Canadians. There was compatibility between French-speaking and English-speaking Canadians.

The North West Company consisted of a few privileged Englishmen and several privileged Scots. Benjamin Frobisher, Joseph Frobisher, James McGill, Simon McTavish, Robert Grant, Nicholas Montour, Patrick Small, William Holmes, George McBeath. Alexander Ross, would join North West Company and so would David Thompson, who was not a Scot and would not be a fur trader. David Thomson is one of the finest cartographers in history.

Other Scots, the landless crofters, found homes in Thomas Douglas, 5th Earl of Selkirk‘s Red River Settlement. Crofters also settled in Nova Scotia and elsewhere in Canada. The Red River Settlement is inextricably linked to the fur trade. The competition between the North West Company and the Hudson’s Bay Company led to the Seven Oaks Massacre (1816) and to the merger of the North West Company and the Hudson’s Bay Company (1821).

Unknown Artist, Indien et Habitant avec Traîneau [Indian and Inhabitant with a Tobogan] (Quebec City) around 1840. (The Exodus: railroads, land, and factories, Related Articles, below)

Conclusion

  • successful Scots
  • Montreal as fur-trade capital in Canada
  • a conquered people
  • the Seigneurial system is abolished

In short, after the Conquest, Montreal became the centre of the fur trade in Canada. Scots were the main shareholders of the North West Company, but the fur trade declined for lack of beavers. Canada’s voyageurs and Amerindians would then become the explorers’ guides. These were mostly Scots. and all wanted to find a passage to the Pacific, by land.

The story of the fur trade chronicles an early chapter in Canadian history, the years following the defeat of France. Nouvelle-France was ceded to Britain in 1763. English-speaking immigrants were brought to Canada and United Empire Loyalists were given land in the Eastern Townships. Yet, in 1854, when the Seigneurial System was abolished, habitants who could not afford their thirty acres had to pay rente perpetually. The French had been conquered.

On 26 August 1831, Alexis de Tocqueville visited a tribunal and said afterwards:

Je n’ai jamais été plus convaincu qu’en sortant [de ce tribunal] que le plus grand et le plus irrémédiable malheur pour un peuple c’est d’être conquis.

See Alexis de Tocqueville on Lower Canada (1 January 2014 )

“I have never been more convinced than after I left the courthouse that the greatest and most irreversible tragedy for a people is to be conquered.” (See Alexis de Tocqueville on Lower Canada, 1 January 2014)

RELATED ARTICLES

  • Alexis de Tocqueville and John Neilson: a Conversation, 27 August 1831 (13 May 2021)
  • Alexis de Tocqueville & John Neilson (13 May 2021)
  • L’Exode told: Trente Arpents (10 May 2021)
  • The Exodus: railroads, land, and factories (6 May 2021)
  • Alexis de Tocqueville on Lower Canada (1 January 2014)
  • Canadiana, 1 (Page)

______________________________
[1] Denis Monière, Le Développement des idéologies au Québec (Montréal: Québec / Amérique, 1977), p. 91.

—ooo—

Love to everyone 💕

Celtic Music from Brittany by Arany Zoltán
Alexis de Tocqueville, Portrait by Théodore Chassériau (1850), at the Palace of Versailles

© Micheline Walker
29 May 2021
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Scots in Canada

26 Wednesday May 2021

Posted by michelinewalker in fur-trade, Lower Canada, Scotland, Scots, Scots in Canada, Sharing

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Beaver Club, fur-trade, Hudson's Bay Company, Montreal, North West Company, sharing

Ravenscrag, built for Sir Hugh Allan in 1863, the Golden Square Mile (Wikipedia)

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I have continued to research Scots in Canada. They were fur traders and became were wealthy. When beavers nearly disappeared, they became explorers. As fur traders, they founded the North West Company (1779) which competed with the Hudson’s Bay Company (established in 1670). They lived in the Montreal’s Golden Square Mile (mille carré doré) and socialized at the Beaver Club, a gentleman’s dining club, founded in 1785. Later, they moved to Westmount, Montreal. A few senior members married French-Canadian women. The French who had remained in the fur trade after the Conquest were senior members at the Beaver Club. New France had its bourgeoisie and bourgeois remained. Some were Seigneurs. Affluent French-speaking Canadian may have lived in Outremont, a lovely area of Montreal. Until recently, bourgeois French Canadians did not live in Westmount. They lived in lovely homes located in Outremont. I visited relatives in that arrondissement. Their homes were lovely, but their dining-room could not accommodate a hundred guests.

Charles Chaboillez was a wealthy fur trader, but he lost his money. His daughter married James McGill who, in his will, paid his father-in-law’s debts and provided him with an annuity.

Montreal is a gem, but the money was in the hands of Anglophones, as Mr Neilson told Alexis de Tocqueville and as Tocqueville himself knew.

The Château Clique is associated with some members of the North West Company, but seigneurs and French bourgeois also belonged to the Château Clique. Fur trading had its classes, and the wealthy are its upper class. The French had been voyageurs and Amerindians were their guides. However, one could be wealthy in New France and Canada without exploiting others. I would not make that generalization.

RELATED ARTICLES

The Auld Alliance and Scots Guard: Scots in Canada (20 May 2021)
Alexis de Tocqueville and John Neilson: a Conversation, 27 August 1831
(13 May 2021)
Alexis de Tocqueville on Lower Canada (17 Janvier 2018)
Canadiana.1 (page)

—ooo—

Love to everyone 💕

Les Indes galantes de Jean-Philippe Rameau, sous la direction de William Christie
Charles Chaboillez, a French Fur Trader (Wikipedia)

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26 May 2021
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Chronicling Covid-19 (14): The Mask

15 Friday May 2020

Posted by michelinewalker in Canada, Covid-19, Pandemic, Uncategorized

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Covid-19, François Legault, Montreal, Policies, Schools, Take-outs, Wearing a mask, William Blake

William_Blake_-_Sconfitta_-_Frontispiece_to_The_Song_of_Los

The archetype of the Creator is a familiar image in Blake’s work. Here, the demiurgic figure Urizen prays before the world he has forged. The Song of Los is the third in a series of illuminated books painted by Blake and his wife, collectively known as the Continental Prophecies. (Photo and caption credit: Wikipedia)

Covid-19

As Quebec was starting to reopen, Premier, le Premier Ministre, François Legault urged the population of Quebec to wear face masks. His audience was not entirely patient with him. Was this a change of policy?

Let’s see. Two months ago, after the Government of Quebec announced a lockdown. I saw residents of my building huddling by the mailboxes, less than two feet apart. As I was rushing down the hallway to safety, I walked past a woman who was saying that she didn’t believe in this virus. To my knowledge, take-out restaurants, such as McDonalds, were locked down, but I knew about the remains of a chicken that were thrown down the garbage chute, naked. As you know, my neighbours are mostly perfect, but these particular neighbours are not. The remains of a chicken should had been put in a bag and then dropped into one of the composting bins.

After two months of isolation, one may be confused. So, I phoned the authorities in order to ask if a policy was in place regarding the delivery of food to persons living in a condominium or an apartment building. I explained that sons and daughters, holding bags filled with groceries and other supplies, were ringing mother’s apartment and waiting for her in the lobby. Mother came down and picked up the bag or bags. However, delivery men were riding up and down elevators and walking along corridors carrying take-outs. If they came to my building, they also went to other buildings and various houses. They could spread the virus during a lockdown.

The authorities, or the person who took my call, did not know whether a policy existed, but she felt that social distancing precluded the delivery of meals to an individual’s apartment. Owners were to go to the lobby and pick up what they had ordered. I therefore suggested to the Committee that, during a lockdown, it seemed somewhat risky to let people circulate in the hallways. In fact, I wondered why we did not have a concierge monitoring access to apartments. The telephone and television system did not go the distance. Could we presume individual owners would be cautious? No, I thought, not if they threw down the chute, unwrapped, the greasy remains of a chicken. These neighbours must be newcomers.

We now return to Quebec’s Premier. I reflected that if François Legault was urging people to wear a mask, it was not a change of policy, but altogether consistent with lifting the lockdown when the coronavirus remained a genuine threat. The government feared that allowing untested people to return to work may lead to flareups, hence the Premier asking, but not dictating, the wearing of a mask. This led to more impatience. Why wasn’t the wearing of masks compulsory (“obligatory” said monsieur Legault)? He explained that it was not “obligatory” because masks were not easily available. Canada had ordered masks from China, which had arrived, but which were defective. They were not approved by Health Canada. Ironically, Canadian-approved N95 masks were being sought by Chinese counterfeiters. In short, some Quebecers do not have access to masks.

https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/canada/canadian-approved-n95-mask-targeted-by-chinese-counterfeiters/ar-BB1446bM?ocid=msedgdhp

As you know, Covid-19 caught everyone unawares. For instance, the novel coronavirus hit Montreal like a bomb. It was a Canadian version of the “tsunami” Milan’s doctor Giacomo Grasselli had described so aptly. (See The Coronavirus. 3). The outbreak of Covid-19 surprised Italians just as it surprised Canada’s doctors, in Montreal especially.

The outbreak has therefore led to decisions, some of which were revisited and reversed. I should tell you that the Quebec government will not reopen schools, Montreal schools, in particular, until September. Some daycares remained open during the lockdown. Given flareups, reopening schools on May 19th was not appropriate. Flareups herald a second wave of Covid-19 that could be the same as the second wave of the Spanish flu of 1918, deadlier than the initial outbreak.

In Quebec, Muslims cannot wear the burqa, but the government was approving the wearing of facemasks. Was this another contradiction? A burqa conceals the face and the body. It can therefore be used to conceal a weapon. Masks cover the nose and mouth as do certain Islamic veils, but the purpose of masks is protection from a virus one can inhale. The virus is a weapon.

No, it was not a contradiction. The coronavirus enters one’s nose and mouth. Coughing has therefore become a potentially lethal weapon. If one is infected with the virus and coughs without wearing a mask, one may inadvertently spread the highly transmissible coronavirus to a person who does not wear personal protective equipment. If everyone wears a mask, everyone is protected to a significant extent. The mask is not a violation of a person’s privacy, but protective personal equipment, which explains why Premier Legault is urging Quebecers who are re-entering the workplace to wear a mask. The virus may be with us for a very long time and it is coriace, tough, coriace as coriace can be.

But, let us hear monsieur Legault.

https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/canada/fran%C3%A7ois-legault-now-recommends-quebecers-wear-masks-when-they-go-out/ar-BB13Zbev?ocid=msedgdhp

Distancing saves lives. It would therefore be my opinion that until our top doctors and scientists find a vaccine or a cure, good masks are our only protection.

I agree with Premier Legault. If one re-enters the workplace, one wears a mask. A mask could allow us to revive our hope and let us rebuild our economy. We can now see the Himalayas, not to mention the stars. The new economy should be a different economy, one that does not pollute the air and cause global warming. However, Premier Legault linked the wearing of a mask to a revival of the economy we know. The two are inextricably linked:

Opening up businesses could hinge on Montrealers wearing masks in public — something Legault has been pushing for several days.

“We will still give ourselves a few days to take a decision on retail businesses,” Legault said. “A crucial element that would help us to reopen is for the majority of people to wear a mask in public.” (The National Gazette)

It may be years before the coronavirus is defeated. Scientists may find a vaccine and a cure, but this may not happen in the near future. Working from home can be extremely difficult and it is at times impossible. So if masks can protect us, let us wear masks.

Sources and Resources

The National Post
The Montreal Gazette
The coronavirus in Quebec
Montréal-Nord
Wikipedia entries
MSN

Love to all of you 💕
I’m quite sick, but a neighbour noticed. She knows everyone. She was worried and phoned me.

This BBC video will probably be erased, but it is funny. This video may lead to another. (Credit: The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon.)

BB13sTku

Brave soldiers in Montreal (MSN)

© Micheline Walker
15 May 2020
WordPress

 

 

 

 

P. S.
The latest numbers of confirmed and presumptive COVID-19 cases in Canada as of 4 a.m. ET on May 15, 2020:

There are 73,401 confirmed and presumptive cases in Canada.

  • Quebec: 40,724 confirmed (including 3,351 deaths, 10,829 resolved)
  • Ontario: 21,494 confirmed (including 1,798 deaths, 16,204 resolved)
  • Alberta: 6,457 confirmed (including 121 deaths, 5,205 resolved)
  • British Columbia: 2,392 confirmed (including 135 deaths, 1,885 resolved)
  • Nova Scotia: 1,026 confirmed (including 51 deaths, 909 resolved)
  • Saskatchewan: 582 confirmed (including 6 deaths, 398 resolved)
  • Manitoba: 278 confirmed (including 7 deaths, 252 resolved), 11 presumptive
  • Newfoundland and Labrador: 261 confirmed (including 3 deaths, 248 resolved)
  • New Brunswick: 120 confirmed (including 118 resolved)
  • Prince Edward Island: 27 confirmed (including 27 resolved)
  • Repatriated Canadians: 13 confirmed (including 13 resolved)
  • Yukon: 11 confirmed (including 11 resolved)
  • Northwest Territories: 5 confirmed (including 5 resolved)
  • Nunavut: No confirmed cases
  • Total: 73,401 (11 presumptive, 73,390 confirmed including 5,472 deaths, 36,104 resolved)

The Canadian Press

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Philippe Couillard, Quebec’s Premier

11 Friday Apr 2014

Posted by michelinewalker in Quebec

≈ 8 Comments

Tags

a Landslide Victory, Montreal, Peter Vronsky, Quebec's Premier Philippe Couillard, The Fenian Raids, The Liberal Party of Quebec

Quebec Premier designate Philippe Couillard speaks at a news conference, Tuesday, April 8, 2014 at the legislature in Quebec City. Quebecers elected a Liberal majority government on April 7. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jacques Boissinot

Quebec Premier designate Philippe Couillard speaks at a news conference, Tuesday, April 8, 2014 at the legislature in Quebec City. Quebecers elected a Liberal majority government on April 7. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jacques Boissinot

The Quebec Elections

  • a possible empowerment of the French culture, not the opposite
  • respect for French-speaking Canadians outside Quebec: Acadians, descendants of voyageurs, etc
  • the French legacy in North-America
  • an end to petty rules
  • speaking French and speaking it correctly: a personal responsibility 

Dr Philippe Couillard, the leader of Quebec’s Liberal Party, has been elected to the premiership of the Province of Quebec. It was a landslide victory. The election of Philippe Couillard will not destroy the Parti québécois, but separatism has been dealt a major blow. There will be changes and, in my opinion, these will not harm French-speaking Québécois. Demanding that restaurant owners write “salle d’eau,” instead of WC, on a bathroom door is somewhat petty. When I lived in France, the word for salle d’eau was WC.

A Strong Canada as an asset to Québécois

Separatist or sovereigntist Québécois may not be fully aware of this fact, but they are already “maîtres chez nous,” (masters in our own home), their motto. Truth be told, federation with a strong and officially bilingual Canada may in fact ensure rather than hinder the preservation and growth of the French culture in both Quebec and Canada, not to mention North-America. It seems to me that in order to thrive culturally, Québécois’ best option may be to remain in a prosperous and united Canada. Quebec is already a de facto ‘distinct’ society. Need it go that much further?

Safety is one of the main reasons, if not the main reason, why, in 1867, Quebec entered into Confederation under the premiership of Sir Georges-Étienne Cartier. American expansionism, as expressed in Manifest Destiny was a threat. Remember as well the Fenian raids. In 2011, Peter Vronsky published Ridgeway: The American Fenian Invasion and the 1866 Battle That Made Canada (link to Amazon). One of the battles fought to push back the Fenians was the Battle of Ridgeway. At the moment, no nation is threatening Canada’s sovereignty, but unity and strength remain an asset. “A house divided against itself cannot stand.” (See Lincoln’s House Divided Speech). Philippe Couillard has to build an economically strong Quebec, an instrument of permanence. There are united yet bilingual and multilingual countries.   

The “Great Expulsion:” never again

Besides, although Quebec has the largest concentration of French-speaking Canadians, French is spoken outside Quebec. Acadians are French-speaking Canadians and Acadie was the first French settlement in North America. Remember Pierre Dugua, sieur de Monts‘ (Du Gua de Monts) and cartographer Samuel de Champlain‘s expedition of 1604. For many years, Champlain was considered the father of Acadie. But this is not altogether the fact.

As you know, the Acadians were deported in 1755 (see Great Expulsion, Wikipedia) and should not be deported again. From the Great Expulsion (le grand dérangement) grew the Cajun people of Louisiana. Deported Acadians survived and many returned the Canada’s Atlantic provinces. I spent twenty-two years of my teaching career in Nova Scotia, where I was surrounded by Acadians. Acadian author Antonine Maillet told the story of Acadians returning “home” pulling their “charrette.” Pélagie-la-Charrette (1979) earned madame Maillet the 1979 Prix Goncourt, the most prestigious award for a work of literature written in French.

Voyageurs

It should also be pointed out that many descendants of Canadiens voyageurs settled in Manitoba when they retired. They created a nation: the Métis inhabiting Manitoba and Saskatchewan. Louis Riel, a Métis, may be a tragic figure but he is a Canadian legend.  Legends endure. Moreover, there is an Évangéline (Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, 1847). She has long ceased to be merely fictional, if ever she was fictional.  Finally, among voyageurs, many found employment in the lumber industry in British Columbia as did other French-Canadians. In other words, there are French-speaking Canadians from coast to coast. It could be that the Québécois’ pays (country) is Gilles Vigneault‘s country: winter. « Mon pays, c’est l’hiver. »

French starts at home

Moreover, the survival of the French culture in Quebec does not depend entirely on creating a milieu where exposure to English is minimized. Preserving Quebec’s culture is also a personal responsibility on the part of Québécois. They must make sure they speak their language as well as possible. They are at liberty to use the word that best conveys a concept. They must read. A language is an identity. Why quarrel? Separatists have sometimes turned the “Anglos” into scapegoats. If we were maîtres chez nous (masters in our own home), such and such would not happen. Well, speaking French correctly and preserving one’s French heritage starts at home: chez nous. It is a choice.

A Liberal Victory: Dr Philippe Couillard

At any rate, the new premier of Quebec is the Quebec Liberal Party leader Philippe Couillard, a neurosurgeon by profession and a descendant of one of the first French families to settle in Quebec. The liberals’ colour is red. Well, on Monday 7 April 2014, Montreal voted red and so did Sherbrooke, etc. Dr Couillard has yet to prove his mettle as Premier of Quebec. But he proved a good candidate to the premiership of Quebec. “Let’s focus on the real issues” was his rallying cry and Quebec does need to focus on the real issues. With respect to issues, my next post will be devoted to the debate on the Quebec Charter of Values.

images

Dr Philippe Couillard

Conclusion

No one knows the future, but one can attempt to build it. Throughout history, millions of individuals have had to leave their country because of genocide, war, poverty, famine and other evils. Millions have suffered. Why should Quebec inflict on itself major and unnecessary confrontations? By and large, Québécois and French-Canadians have been privileged in this regard and their rights are protected.

We now live in an English-speaking world, which was not always the case. Empires rise and fall. Yet, although the world learns English, nations do not have to betray their linguistic and cultural heritage.

rue-du-parc-lafontaine_001

Rue du Parc Lafontaine, Montreal

RELATED ARTICLES

  • From Coast to Coast: the Fenian Raids
  • Three Conferences, Confederation and Now: Civil Unrest
  • The Manifest Destiny & the News
  • From Manifest Destiny to Exceptionalism
  • Pierre du Gua: a mostly Forgotten Founder of Canada
  • French-Canadians in the United States (4 Nov 2012)

Sources:

The Globe and Mail “Meet Philippe Couillard, the former neurosurgeon who is Quebec’s new premier…”
The National Post “A quiet intellectual with a need to serve.”
Global Montreal “Who is Quebec Liberal leader Philippe Couillard?”
Le Devoir Liste des articles liés à « Philippe Couillard » 
Antonine Maillet, the Unknow Acadian, CBC
 

—ooo—

 
Tchaikovsky, Old French song 

FLEUR_~1

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April 11, 2014
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Lac-Mégantic: Comments

13 Saturday Jul 2013

Posted by michelinewalker in Uncategorized

≈ 13 Comments

Tags

Harding, Lac-Mégantic, Lac-Mégantic Quebec, Montreal, Nantes, Quebec, Sherbrooke, The Globe and Mail

The_Scream

The Scream, by Edvard Munch, 1893 (Photo credit: Wikipaintings)
Schools: Symbolism and Expressionism 
 
The Globe and Mail
CBC News
 

Lac-Mégantic

The vigils have begun all over the province.  People have been asked not to converge on Lac-Mégantic itself as the little community cannot accommodate crowds.  Quebecers are therefore praying and lighting candles where they live.

A Story in Progress

I have some information, but what happened has yet to be determined.

For the last several months, the same cab driver picked up Mr Harding, the conductor, in Nantes, where he parked the train, 10 kilometres (6 to 7 miles) outside Lac-Mégantic.  This cab driver, André Turcotte, has said that he is not ready to “crucify” Tom Harding.  Moreover, when he got to his hotel, L’Eau Berge (from “auberge”), a local inn, Mr Harding would often share a beer with François Durand, another customer, before going to his room.  He is a quiet, but likeable fellow.  I now gather, from watching various videos, that Mr Harding has been “suspended” without pay and that his mobility is restricted.  This is, therefore, a story in progress.

The Locomotive and the Brakes

It could be that Mr Harding did not tighten the brakes sufficiently.  However, I have read (La Tribune, 12 July, p. 2) that when a fire started in the locomotive, 10 kilometers away from Lac-Mégantic, in Nantes, firefighters turned off the motor of the locomotive, which may have caused the brakes to loosen up and the convoy of tankers to go down hill on its own.

In other words, did Mr Harding not tighten the brakes or could it be that firefighters inadvertently caused the brakes to malfunction by turning off the motor of the locomotive?  This was a heavy convoy and there was a hill.  The brakes may have failed because of the weight of the convoy and sheer gravity.  Besides, were these brakes adequate and in good order?

At any rate, the tankers went downhill and derailed when they arrived in Lac-Mégantic, which is where the explosions occurred.  According to his taxi driver, when Mr Harding left the train, there was smoke, always.  However, during the night of July 5-6, there was more smoke than was normally the case.

When Mr Harding emerged from the hotel, where he spent one or two nights every week, Catherine Pomerleau-Pelletier, a  waitress at afore-mentioned l’Eau Berge, noticed that the engineer looked aghast.  He had left his convoy parked, unattended, 10 kilometers away from Lac-Mégantic, but it was exploding in the middle of Lac-Mégantic.

The tankers were not safe, nor was the locomotive.  There was smoke all the time.  Moreover, the conductor or engineer was the only person operating the locomotive.  In short, this tragedy is starting to look like a case of negligence.  What are the rules and regulations?

The Ice-Storm

Quebec has teams of persons trained to deal with disasters.  The North-American Ice-Storm of 1998 was a major disaster and an eye-opener.  Some localities were without electricity for three weeks and millions of persons were affected.  Quebec chose the expensive option.  It made sure no ice-storm would cut off the electricity.

So, I hope Quebec chooses the expensive option once again: re-route the tracks, make them safer, impose stiff regulations on railway companies, i.e. safe tankers, safe locomotives, more employees—Mr Harding worked alone!  Moreover, if a train carries crude oil and there is no way of re-routing the railway, that train should not run through a populated area, near houses and businesses.

About Trains

Trains are a precious commodity.  They can travel rapidly if the tracks are properly built.  Entering or leaving Montreal can be a serious undertaking.  A few years ago, friends and I waited four hours before we could cross the Champlain bridge.  Montreal is an island.  We need a fast and secure train linking Montreal and Sherbrooke.  There are too many heavy trucks travelling on our highways, not to mention too many cars.

Four more bodies have been extricated from the débris and there will be more.

I wish all of you a good weekend.

four-girls-in-arsgardstrand-1903.jpg!Large

© Micheline Walker
July 13, 2013
WordPress
 
Fours Girls in Arsgardstrand,
Edvard Munch, 1903
(Photo credit: Wikipaintings)

“Edvard Munch (12 December 1863 – 23 January 1944) was a Norwegian Symbolist painter, printmaker, and an important forerunner of expressionistic art. His best-known composition, The Scream is one of the pieces in a series titled The Frieze of Life, in which Munch explored the themes of life, love, fear, death, and melancholy.”  (Edvard Munch, YouTube)

Related articles
  • A look at Tom Harding, the train driver at the heart of Lac Megantic disaster (o.canada.com)
  • Who is Tom Harding, engineer at centre of Lac Megantic train explosion? (globalnews.ca)
  • A portrait of the train driver at the heart of Lac-Megantic disaster (globalnews.ca)
  • Lac-Mégantic: a Devastated Community (michelinewalker.com)

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Lac-Mégantic: a Devastated Community

12 Friday Jul 2013

Posted by michelinewalker in Uncategorized

≈ 12 Comments

Tags

Canada, Lac-Mégantic Quebec, Maine Atlantic Railway, Montreal, Montreal Maine & Atlantic Railway, Pauline Marois, Quebec, Sherbrooke, The Globe and Mail

Lac Mégantic

web-megantic-harding11nw1

 
CBC News: Lac Mégantic Explosion: a video of the tragedy
CBC News: Lac Mégantic, before and after
Globe and Mail: a terrified train conductor
Globe and Mail: these are the lost (Éliane Parenteau Bélanger, a grandmother, has been identified.)
Globe and Mail: latest
Globe and Mail: residents of Lac-Mégantic hurled insults at Edward Burkhardt, the chairman of Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway
CTV News: Train Derailment Sparks Explosions in Quebec
See Related Articles: at the bottom of this post
 

Dear Readers,

It has been a difficult week.  As you know, I no longer have a complete WordPress.  I’m being helped but, until now, unsuccessfully.  Fortunately, my fingers know where to go.

Quebec’s Lac-Mégantic Tragedy

On July 6th, a train transporting crude oil derailed and exploded devastating a little town of 6,000 inhabitants: Lac-Mégantic.  Nearly every family in town lost a loved-one.  One body, that of Éliane Parenteau Bélanger, a grandmother, has been identified. DNA samples are required because the bodies of the victims are charred and cannot otherwise be identified.  Some bodies may never be found:  from ashes to ashes.

Newspapers have been covering the event extensively.  Every morning, the front page of my humble Tribune, Sherbrooke’s newspaper, has shown apocalyptic scenes.  In fact, the bulk of the newspaper, six pages this morning, is a chronicle of the tragedy.  Today it featured the worst: grief.  The front page showed people hugging one another.  I was about to write “ordinary people,” but that would be inappropriate.  No one is “ordinary.”

Canada‘s Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, was on the scene shortly after the tragedy.  It helped.  As for Quebec Premier Pauline Marois, she was in Lac-Mégantic yesterday.   This also helped.  However, the very first persons to arrive in Lac-Mégantic were people carrying supplies: food, clothing, bedding.  At the moment, thirty-five psychologists and social workers are in Lac-Mégantic helping the survivors, some of whom had to be hospitalized.  They collapsed.

Imagine the conductor, Mr Tom Harding.   He was spending the night in Lac-Mégantic and was awakened by an explosion.  Ironically, the noise he heard came from his train.  It had exploded.   Mr Harding had stopped the train for the night and left it on a hill.  It seems the brake failed.  Mr Harding has already been relieved of his duties by the Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway Company.  This could be too hasty and insensitive a decision on the part of the Company.  Mr Harding is among the victims of that tragedy.

Mr Edward Burkhardt, the Chairman of the Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway Company, has now travelled to Lac-Mégantic.  People have hurled insults at him. That was a rather ugly scene.

So far, the charred remains of twenty-four victims have been found, but individuals are still missing and a few persons who were presumed dead, are alive.  It would appear fifty persons died.

Logo

Logo (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

© Micheline Walker
July 12, 2013
WordPress 
 
 
 
Bach-Wood Lament
Sir Henry Wood (3 March 1869 – 19 August 1944)
conductor: Leonard Slatkin (b. 1944)
The BBC Symphony

Sir Henry Wood’s ‘Suite No. 6’ is a set of six Bach transcriptions, arranged from various sources, that includes this heartfelt ‘Lament.’  It is the ‘Adagio’ from Bach’s ‘Capriccio on the Departure of His Most Beloved Brother’ in B-flat major, BWV 992.  (YouTube video)

Related articles
  • Five confirmed dead, more than 40 missing after Quebec explosions – Globe and Mail (theglobeandmail.com)
  • Breakfast with the most hated man in Lac-Mégantic (macleans.ca)
  • Death toll climbs to 24 after Lac-Megantic mayor lashes out at railway exec Burkhardt (globalnews.ca)
  • Lac-Mégantic locals flesh out picture of a terrified train driver (theglobeandmail.com)

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Montreal on my Mind

28 Tuesday May 2013

Posted by michelinewalker in Canada, Quebec

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

Hôtel-Dieu de Montréal, Jeanne Mance, Marguerite Bourgeoys, Montreal, New France, Notre-Dame, Pierre Elliott Trudeau, Quebec, Riot 1968, Saint-Jean-Baptiste riot

Letter from Louis XIV to Montrealers

Letter from Louis XIV to Montrealers (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

During the weekend, I attended a dinner in Montreal.  The men wore tuxedos and the ladies, one of the fine gowns Donkeyskin asked her father to give her. I was surrounded by multilingual and multicultural individuals of every race. The men wore tuxedos and the ladies, one of the fine gowns Donkeyskin asked her father to give her. I was surrounded by multilingual and multicultural individuals of every race. Everyone was on an equal footing. So this was the Montreal I like.

I remarked to the gentleman sitting across from me, a lawyer, that it had saddened me to learn that investors had taken 50% of their money out of Quebec after the election of Madame Pauline Marois to the Premiership of Province of Quebec. This lawyer is a bilingual Québécois. He told me there was more and then mentioned 1977, the year after Parti Québécois leader, charismatic René Lévesque, was elected into office. After his election, on 15 November 1976, there was an exodus. We then moved on to another subject.

Rue Saint-Dominique, 1866

Rue Saint-Dominique, 1866 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

However, after I returned home, I remembered Saint Francis Xavier University (StFX) once again. This time, I was not thinking about Dr Cecil MacLean. In my thoughts were the sisters of the Congrégation de Notre-Dame (the CNDs) who owned a convent and a residence for female students on the campus of StFX.  I had just been in Montreal where Marguerite Bourgeoys (17 April 1620 – 12 January 1700) founded the Congrégation de Notre-Dame.  In this respect, you may remember that many of the filles du roy were taught to cook and to sew by members of the fledgling Congrégation.  Several filles du roy had not been taught skills that would be required of the young women who would marry settlers to New France and raise large families.

Losses

Losing their residence for women must have been devastating to my colleagues who were members of the Congrégation de Notre-Dame, but imagine their also losing their convent.  Who would help them? The order had suffered losses during the Quiet Revolution, or Révolution tranquille, so to what extent could they be helped by their weakened Quebec motherhouse. Until the 1960s, convents run by the Congrégation de Notre-Dame (CND) and other religious orders had flourished in Quebec, but during the Révolution tranquille, the Quebec government laicized education and healthcare, which dealt a blow to Catholic institutions.

(Please click on the image to enlarge it.  Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Map of Hochelaga

Hochelaga, between 1556 and 1606

Historical Montreal

When Paul de Chomedey, Sieur de Maisonneuve  (15 February 1612 – 9 September 1676), a French soldier born in Champagne, founded Montreal (Hochelaga), on 17 May 1642, he did so on behalf of the Société Notre-Dame de Montréal, an organization founded in Paris by Jérôme le Royer de la Dauversière, a Jesuit.

In 1608, Samuel de Champlain had founded Quebec-city (Stadacona) as both a mission and a fur-trading post. Montreal, however, was founded as a mission, Ville-Marie, and in 1663 the whole island was conceded as a seigniory to the Messieurs de Saint-Sulpice FR,[i]  a society of Catholic priests founded in Paris in 1639. Montreal did become a fur-trading post, but it was first and foremost a mission and, inextricably associated to its founding, are Jeanne Mance  (12 November 1606 – 18 June 1673) and Marguerite Bourgeoys (17 April 1620 – 12 January 1700). Jeanne Mance was Nouvelle-France’s first nurse. She established l’Hôtel-Dieu de Montréal in 1645. Marguerite Bourgeoys, canonized by John Paul II on 17 October 1982, was Montreal’s first teacher and, as noted above, she founded the Congrégation de Notre-Dame in 1658.

The Quiet Revolution

A separation of Church and State was inevitable, but the work of the Dames de la Congrégation was linked with the founding of Montreal, not to mention both the preservation and growth of the French language in Quebec and the rest of Canada. Quebec may have been a “priest-ridden” province, but without its various religious orders and, among them, the Dames de la Congrégation, one wonders whether or not there would have been a Quebec to “reform.” As indicated in the Canadian Encyclopedia, “[u]nder Jean Lesage the Québec Liberal Party had developed a coherent, wide-ranging reform platform. The main issue of the election was indicated by the Liberal slogan, “It’s time for a change.” I wonder, however, whether Premier Jean Lesage (10 June 1912 – 12 December 1980) realized that, in the case of Quebec, the line between Church and State was so very blurred that his “coherent, wide-ranging reform platform” could broaden to include an ideology that rivalled religion: sovereignty or separatism, as it was then called.

The Church in Quebec

As I wrote above although the separation of Church and State was unavoidable, Quebec’s ancien régime, metaphorically speaking, had been the Seigneurial system which was replaced by what could be called the Parochial system (my term).  Quebec had parishes and, when cities started to sprout, they were a collection of parishes each of which had its schools, one for girls and one for boys, etc. Therefore, how would religious orders be replaced? There was too profound a gap to fill.

I am told that the formerly “priest-ridden” province is now a union-ridden province, which could be the case. I should think, however, that the dream of a sovereign province may also have helped replace the Parochial system. History has yet to render its verdict, but the Révolution tranquille may well have supplied ample room to French-speaking Quebecers who had wanted an independent Quebec since the Act of Union was promulgated, in 1841. That year the patriotes lost their Lower Canada which they believed was truly theirs. At any rate, the changes were more extensive than Premier Lesage had foreseen. There had long been nationalists among Québécois but, as of the 1960s, these nationalists were active separatists and among them there were terrorists. Therefore, it may be that sovereignty or separatism filled the profound gap I mentioned.

24 June 1968

The gentleman I escorted to Saturday’s elegant dinner told me that, on 24 June 1968, he was standing a few feet away from Pierre Bourgault (23 January 1934 – 16 June 2003), a leading séparatiste.  June 24th is Quebec’s national holiday: the Saint-Jean-Baptiste.  When the yearly parade reached parc La Fontaine, in Montreal, my friend personally saw a group of hooligans join Pierre Bourgault who started the riot by screaming “le Québec aux Québécois,” “le Québec aux Québécois,” (Quebec for Quebecers). The hooligans, he said, first lifted a police car and put it on its head. There were 292 arrests and 123 persons were injured, 43 of whom were members of the police force. Some of the police horses were also injured. Pierre Elliott Trudeau (18 October 1919 – 28 September 2000), the Prime Minister of Canada, was in attendance and refused to be taken away to safety.

It’s been 45 years. Although Pierre Bourgault later revealed his role in the riot, he was never charged for the criminal behaviour I just described. Rioters may have been targeting Pierre Trudeau, but the 1968 riot was, so to speak, self-inflicted terrorism, which is puzzling. Moreover, when bombs were placed in mailboxes, these could cause injury to anyone, including Québécois and, perhaps, separatists. I then remembered the 1970 October Crisis. On 5 October 1970, Quebec terrorists abducted James Cross, CMG, but the person they assassinated was Pierre Laporte (25 February 1921 – 17 October 1970), Quebec’s very own Labour Minister. Given the above, it could well be that separatism, later called souveraineté-association and souveraineté, did replace the Church, not altogether, but to a greater or lesser extent. Only crusaders are capable of such intensity and somewhat incomprehensible behaviour.

Let’s say that matters got “curiouser and curiouser” (Alice in Wonderland).

(Please click on the photographs to enlarge them.)

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Parc La Fontaine
Rue du Parc-La-Fontaine
Google Images
 

Conclusion

And now, Quebec is losing investors. Matters were worse in 1977, just after René Lévesque (24 August 1922 – 1 November 1987), was elected to the Premiership of Quebec. But, financially, Quebecers are nevertheless suffering, which they may not realize. Yet, Canada is an officially bilingual country where the rights of French-speaking Canadians are respected.

As for my colleagues who were losing their residence and convent, that loss reflects, first and foremost, the needs of a new generation of students. More modern residences had been built. However, I believe my colleague’s losses are also linked to the weakening of religious orders in Quebec. The Congrégation de Notre-Dame is a Montreal religious order.  Quebec remembers its founders, but the Church is no longer the powerful institution it had been since the seventeenth century.

_________________________

[i] Society of Saint-Sulpice

I am providing links to French-language videos showing the 24 June 1968  Saint-Jean-Baptiste day riot.  It seems these cannot be embedded.  But I am also inserting a little video showing patriotes being taken to the gallows.  The music is “À la claire fontaine,” perhaps the most Québécois of Québécois songs: an unofficial anthem.

http://www.cbc.ca/archives/categories/politics/prime-ministers/pierre-elliott-trudeau-philosopher-and-prime-minister/the-pm-wont-let-em-rain-on-his-parade.html

Émeute lors de la Saint-Jean-Baptiste à… par CioranQc

https://michelinewalker.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/10-a-la-claire-fontaine.wav

Patriotes à Beauharnois en novembre 1838 par Katherine Jane Ellice (aquarelle). Archives nationales du Canada

Patriotes à Beauharnois en novembre 1838 par Katherine Jane Ellice (aquarelle) (Archives nationales du Canada)

© Micheline Walker
28 May 2013
WordPress

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Pauline Marois’ Offensive

16 Saturday Mar 2013

Posted by michelinewalker in Uncategorized

≈ 10 Comments

Tags

Canada, French language, Madame Marois, Montreal, Parti Québécois, Pauline Marois, Quebec, Quiet Revolution

Jacques Dallaire

Élégant, by Jean Dallaire (1916-1965)

(with permission from La Galerie Klinkhoff, Montreal)

The Offensive

I was delighted that so many of you read my last post and left a “like.”  The tax I wrote about is mostly trivial, but it is a step in the wrong direction.  Moreover, in an article posted below, Madame Marois claims that separation from Canada is an emergency, which is another step in the wrong direction.  She bemoans the fact Quebecers have “two levels of government” and states that the solution is independence from Canada.  Allow me to quote Madame Marois:

  • ‘We are on the offensive:’ Pauline Marois claims Quebec sovereignty is an ’emergency’ (news.nationalpost.com)
“Marois told a weekend meeting of Parti Quebecois delegates that it is “very important to explain” the benefits of making Quebec a country, which include the province making its own decisions and ending the duplication of two levels of government.” (Feb. 11, 2013)  
 

To my knowledge, it happened the other way around.  Quebec, not Canada, created a government within a government (i.e. a factious government).  For instance, Quebec failed to sign the patriated constitution (1982).  That gesture alone can serve as proof that the government of Quebec had initiated a separation from Canada and had done so without first obtaining from the people of Quebec a mandate allowing it to start negotiating the terms of a new relationship with Ottawa.  There had been a referendum, but indépendantistes  had not obtained sufficient votes.  So, in 1982, the government of Quebec acted as if Quebec had separated from Canada, when such was not the case.

Ironically, in the 1960s, at the time the Quiet Revolution took place, Quebecers were lulled into thinking they would inhabit a welfare state, but they are now paying taxes to “two levels of government” because its own government put the cart before the horse.  It acted prematurely.  Moreover, because Quebec did not sign the patriated Constitution, there are limitations on the validity of Quebec’s health-insurance card.  When I lived outside Quebec, my health-insurance card was valid from coast to coast.

  •  French Canadians are victims of ‘soft ethnocide’ by Ottawa, PQ-funded study claims (news.nationalpost.com)

“The latest outbreak of separatist grievance-mongering comes in the form of a new PQ-funded report that claims Ottawa is allowing Anglophone provinces to commit “soft ethnocide” on French speakers around the country. “We’re reminding people of the evolution of Canada when we systematically eliminated French at the start of the 20th century,” said the lead author this week.” (Feb. 5, 2013)

The School Problem

Regarding the “soft ethnocide” Madame Marois is imputing to Ottawa, need I remind Quebec’s Premier that, traditionally, it has been difficult for French-speaking Canadians to separate language from religion.  They had been taught that language and religion were inextricably linked.  So the reason why French-speaking Canadians living outside Quebec could not receive an education in French has little to do with resistance on the part of English-speaking Canadians and Ottawa.  It has to do with the fact that provincial governments do not fund denominational schools.  Such schools are private schools.

I saw my very own father rebuked and labelled a “communist,” because it was acceptable to him to separate language and religion, or faith and state.  Fortunately, matters changed when Pierre Elliott Trudeau became Prime Minister.  It is now possible for French-speaking Canadians to be educated in French outside Quebec and English-speaking students are eager to enter French-immersion programs.  In other words, there is no “soft ethnocide” of French-speaking Canadians residing outside Quebec, at least not yet.  But there may be an ethnocide if Quebec continues to act recklessly.

Tuition-free education

Let me address this matter once again.  In Quebec, beginning with the Quiet Revolution, the government wanted to give students whose parents had not attended a university a chance to do so.  Students were therefore spared a measure of screening.  It is relatively easy for Quebec students to enter university.  Besides, their tuition fees are half the amount Canadian students pay outside Quebec.  The Quebec government cannot afford what the Parti Québécois peddled so Madame Marois would defeat Jean Charest’s federalist government.  If a referendum were called in the near future, students would not support indépendance.  As for other Québécois and Quebeckers, especially the elderly, they would remember that they are footing the bill so fees paid by students would not rise.  Someone has to foot the bill and, among those who do, too many are living below the poverty line.

The Quiet Revolution took place fifty years ago.  May I suggest therefore that the time may have come for Quebec universities to put into place more selective entrance requirements.  May I also suggest that it is entirely possible for intelligent and hard-working students to obtain a university degree even if their parents have not attended a university.

My father is an intellectual, but my parents did not attend university.  Yet, on the basis of an entrance examination, I earned myself a free education.  Furthermore, when I entered graduate school, I did so at the doctoral level and by invitation.  In my opinion, if a  student’s performance warrants financial help, financial help should be available, as it was for me.

About Quebec universities

I took courses in musicology at a Quebec English-language university.  The department of music had three full-time professors and twenty-two chargés de cours (part-time teachers).  It needed part-time teachers because students were learning to play different instruments, but three vs twenty-two seemed too wide a discrepancy.  Besides, other departments also hired more part-time teachers than full-time teachers.  As a result, many Quebec university teachers have left Quebec and teach in other provinces.  That is a loss for Quebec.  In fact that is not-so-soft ethnocide perpetrated by the Quebec government.

Conclusion

It seems to me that in the interest of peace, growth, and the pursuit of happiness, Madame Marois and her Parti Québécois, should revisit their decision to separate from Canada.  In particularly, they should assign members of the Office québécois de la langue française, OQLF to more positive tasks.  The time has come for a more significant number of Québécois to speak their language correctly.  Québécois do have a territory and that territory is their culture.  Asking restaurant owners to replace WC by toilettes on the door to a restaurant’s facilities is petty in the utmost and it threatens French-speaking Canadians living outside Quebec.

For forty years, I lived in complete harmony with my English-speaking neighbours as well as my English-speaking colleagues.  Yes, I was overworked, which put a premature end to my career as a university teacher, but no one ever forced me to speak English or got upset if I used French words.  On the contrary!

Moreover, the time has also come for Québécois to be taught the history of their country.  They need to know that French-speaking Canadians were not harmed by Britain.  In 1763, France could no longer afford New France so it chose to retain Guadeloupe as a colony rather than New France.  However, under the new régime, French-speaking Canadians kept their farms, seigneuries, religion and their language.  Moreover, in 1774, the Quebec Act put French-speaking Canadians on the same footing as English-speaking Canadians.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with living in a bilingual or trilingual country.  But it is very wrong to foment dissent and unnecessary conflicts.  Madame Marois is calling for an offensive, but I am calling for all Canadians to respect one another.  I am calling for peace, growth and the pursuit of happiness.

© Micheline Walker
16 March 2013
WordPress
Related articles
  • ‘We are on the offensive:’ Pauline Marois claims Quebec sovereignty is an ’emergency’ (news.nationalpost.com)
  • Quebec on my Mind (michelinewalker.com)

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Quebec’s Summit on Education: a “Turquerie”

05 Tuesday Mar 2013

Posted by michelinewalker in Quebec

≈ 13 Comments

Tags

Canada, Madame Marois, Montreal, Parti Québécois, Pauline Marois, Pierre Duchesne, Quebec, Summit

 
To Those Who Live in the Present Moment, Chantale Jean, 2012

To Those Who Live in the Present Moment, Chantale Jean, 2012

Chantale Jean
Courtesy of La Galerie Klinkhoff, Montreal
 
Dear Readers,
I apologize for not writing a blog for nearly four days. 
I will return to the subject we were discussing, medieval Bestiaries, but the next Bestiary differs from the Aberdeen and Ashmole Bestiaries.  It is a Bestiaire d’amour and is associated with chivalry and courtly love.
However, I wanted to speak a little about events in the province of Quebec.
 

Last Spring’s Quebec Student Protests

You may remember that last spring students went on strike and started demonstrating because Premier Jean Charest’s Liberal government planned to increase tuition fees from $2,168 to $3,793 between 2012 and 2017 ($1,625 over five years = $325.00 a year). To my knowledge, Quebec students were then paying less than half the tuition fees students pay in other Canadian provinces. The increase was therefore reasonable.

Student demonstrations began and events became disorderly. In particular, students who wanted to complete their academic year were treated like strike breakers or “scabs.” Consequently, on 18 May 2012, former Quebec Premier Jean Charest’s Liberal government passed a bill into Law, Bill 78.[i] The new law, an emergency law, was An Act to enable students to receive instruction from the postsecondary institutions they attend (L.Q., 2012, c. 12 / Laws of Quebec, 2012, chapter 12). (See Bill 78, Wikipedia.)

However, Bill 78 did not deter students. On the contrary.  The student demonstrations were led by student unions, such as the Fédération étudiante universitaire du Québec, and supported by workers unions, the Confédération des syndicats nationaux and the Canadian Union of Public Employees. So the students grew more defiant. On 22 May 2012, between 400,000 and 500,000 people marched in downtown Montreal.” This march has been called “the largest act of civil disobedience in Canadian History.” (See 2012 Quebec student protests, Wikipedia.)

Pauline Marois as Fairy Godmother

Suddenly, as demonstrations raged, Madame Pauline Marois, the leader of the Parti Québécois, an indépendantiste party, started supporting the students whose demands grew bolder. At first, the students were protesting the increase in their tuition fees proposed by Monsieur Charest’s Liberal government, but matters changed. After Madame Marois stepped in and during the months that preceded the Summit, the students were asking for a tuition-free education.

It would be my opinion that Madame Marois knew very well that the increase Monsieur Charest’ Liberal government proposed was altogether acceptable, not to say insufficient. However, Pauline Marois needed votes and got votes. On 4 September  2012, she was elected Premier of the Province of Quebec.

It was not an overwhelming victory. Pauline Marois leads a minority government, but the students provided enough votes for her to be elected. She seemed their fairy godmother and when she took office, the students’ planned tuition increases were repealed by a decree from Madame Marois’ Parti Québécois government. Without the support of Quebec’ students, I doubt Madame Marois would have defeated Premier Jean Charest’s Liberal government.

The Summit on Education

But now, at the conclusion of an expensive Summit on Education, a mere show, Madame Marois has announced that tuition fees would rise by 3 per cent annually.  This increase is almost identical to former Quebec Premier Charest’s proposed increase. Therefore, it turns out that Madame Marois misled students into thinking she would protect their interests.

So allow me to bemoan, once again, the behaviour of Quebec Premier Pauline Marois.  She manipulated the students into thinking she would be an ally, and they believed her. I should think there are more honourable ways of being elected to the premiership of the province of Quebec.

Toronto Star journalist Chantal Hébert has stated that “[i]n the wake of Marois’ victory, the student leadership had cause to believe that it would secure a coveted tuition freeze. The recurrent 3 per cent annual increase that the premier has now resolved to implement does not live up to those expectations.”  I believe Madame Hébert is absolutely right. The students did believe that, if elected into the office of Premier of Quebec, Madame Marois would be their salvation.

Pierre Duchesne and Jacques Parizeau

During the months and weeks preceding the Summit, Monsieur Pierre Duchesne, Quebec’s Minister of Higher Education, Research, Science and Technology, made it very clear that a tuition-free education was not in the works, which should have deterred students. In fact, he made himself so clear that many Québécois and Quebecers wondered why the Summit was taking place. It seemed an exercise in futility at a huge expense, which it was.

But, as mentioned above, the students believed Madame Marois. Moreover, as Pierre Duchesne was stating that a tuition-free education was out of the question, former Parti Québécois leader and Premier of Quebec Jacques Parizeau was expressing the view that “free tuition [was] a realistic option.” (See the report of Montreal Gazette‘s Quebec Bureau Chief Kevin Dougherty.)

Students were, of course, bitterly disappointed when news came that the Marois government would implement an increase in tuition fee, even if it is lower than the increase Premier Charest’s government had proposed. This year, the 3 per cent increase will be $65.04. Some protested and a few paid the price. On 25 February, there was one arrest (see cbcnews) and on February 26th, there were ten (see presstv.com). Madame Marois had made false promises and the Summit on Education was yet another political ploy: a turquerie[ii]. Madame Marois was trying to bow out gracefully, but did she?

Conclusion

I hope the students will remember that Madame Marois used them to get votes and that, consequently, they will be less likely to support her and her Parti Québécois (PQ) in a future bid for re-election. I also hope they will be less likely to support separation from Canada in a referendum.

Madame Marois has not announced a referendum, but a referendum usually follows the election to the premiership of Quebec of an indépendantiste leader and Party. At any rate, a referendum is very much on the mind of former Parti Québécois Premier Jacques Parizeau. (See Montreal Gazette & Montreal Gazette)

In closing, I wish to reassure you that despite a 3 per cent annual increase to my knowledge, the students of Quebec will still be paying the lowest tuition fees in Canada.  I hope they realize how fortunate they are and that they have learned not to break the law

 
RELATED ARTICLE

Les Indes galantes & le Bourgeois gentilhomme: turqueries

______________________________
[i] Bill 78  “Article 16 of the bill furthermore declares illegal any demonstration of more than 50 people, at any location in Quebec, unless the dates, times, starting point, and routes of those locations and also the duration of the venue and the means of transportation that will be used by participants, if applicable, have been submitted to and approved by Quebec police.” (Bill 78, Wikipedia.)
[ii] A “turquerie” is the play-within-a-play used in Molière‘s Bourgeois gentilhomme
(Would-be Gentleman) to fool Monsieur Jourdain, who wants to be an aristocrat, into thinking his daughter is marrying a Sultan of Turkey.  (For other definitions, see Turqueries, Wikipedia.)
 
composer: Jules Massenet (12 May 1842 – 13 August 1912)
piece: Méditation, Thaïs (opera)
violinist: Itzhak Perlman (born 31 August 1945)

(Please click on the image to enlarge it.)
Snow Geese on White Snow, by Chantale Jean 2012<br /><br /><br /><br /><br />

Snow Geese on White Snow, Chantale Jean, 2012

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More Thoughts on Quebec

25 Friday Jan 2013

Posted by michelinewalker in Canada, Quebec, Students' Strike

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

Canada, Canadian Association of University Teachers, Denis Blanchette, Montreal, Parti Québécois, Pauline Marois, Quebec, War Measures Act

Pauliine Marois with Students (January 21, 2013
Quebec Premier Pauline Marois poses with students at a ceremony marking the 65th anniversary of the Quebec Fleur de Lys flag, Monday, January 21, 2013 at the legislature in Quebec City. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jacques Boissinot

“In March, Quebec student groups declared war on a planned tuition hike of roughly $2,000 over five years. By April, students at 11 of Quebec’s 18 universities and 14 of its 48 CEGEPs had declared “strikes” and were skipping classes. There were nightly marches in Montreal that made life miserable for many who lived and worked downtown. Students who dared go to classes, even after judges orders allowing them to return, were stopped by masked protesters. The nightly marches started turning violent and threatened the tourism industry. Something had to be done.”  (MacLeans.ca)

Back to the Students’ strike: Bill 78

During the spring of 2012, beginning on 13 February 2012, Quebec’s university and CEGEPs’ students were on strike.  The strike lasted until 7 September 2012 when Madame Marois’ newly elected government repealed the proposed hike in tuition fees.

18 May 2012:  Bill 78 is enacted 

As described in the opening quotation of this post, the strike became disorderly. Moreover, it disrupted students who wanted to finish their university or CEGEP term.  Consequently, on 18 May 2012, the National Assembly of Quebec passed Bill 78, an “Act to enable students to receive instruction from the postsecondary institutions they attend” (Bill 78, Wikipedia) but an act that restricted the degree to which the students could create a public disturbance.

“The law makes it illegal to deny a person access to any place if that person has a right or duty to be there and further restricts “any form of gathering” that might cause such denial from assembling inside any educational building, on the grounds of such a building, and within 50 meters of the limits of those grounds. Employees of the colleges and universities may strike with accordance to the Labour Code, but they are still required to work their normal scheduled hours and carry out their usual duties” (Bill 78, Wikipedia.)
 

22 May 2012: a Demonstration

Bill 78 (L.Q., 2012, c. 12 / Laws of Quebec, 2012, chapter 12) is a temporary law which expires on 1 July 2013. However, on 22 May 2012, four days after Bill 78 was passed, between 400,000 and 500,000 individuals flooded the streets of Montreal in defiance of the new law.  Obviously this was lawlessness, but the students looked upon their limited ability to protest as an infringement on their civil rights.  They were therefore breaking the law in protest of the law, and they were not alone.

Bill 78: criticized and condemned

Bill 78 has been criticized and condemned by the Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT), the Quebec Human Rights Commission and civil libertarians.  Moreover, lawyers organized a demonstration of their own and the law has been called  “the second worst on record next since the War Measures Act.”[i]

A Decree

As I wrote in Thoughts about Quebec, on 28 August 2012, students were again protesting the rise in tuition.  Madame Marois had become Premier on 4 September 2012 so, on 7 September 2012, three days after her election and the death, by gun, of Denis Blanchette, she and her Parti Québécois decreed to freeze tuition fees.

Quebec Premier-elect Pauline Marois and her husband, Claude Blanchet, are among the dignitaries atending the funeral services for Denis Blanchette Monday, September 10, 2012 in Montreal. Richard Bain is charged with first degree murder in the shooting death of Blanchette and wounding another man outside the Parti Quebecois election night rally. . THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ryan Remiorz

Quebec Premier-elect Pauline Marois and her husband, Claude Blanchet, are among the dignitaries attending the funeral services for Denis Blanchette Monday, September 10, 2012 in Montreal. Richard Bain is charged with first degree murder in the shooting death of Blanchette and wounding another man outside the Parti Quebecois election night rally. THE CANADIAN PRESS / Ryan Remiorz

Comments

The Strike

  • The students broke the law. One does not break the law.
  • Moreover, it would be my opinion that Madame Marois used the students to pursue her political goals.
  • The discrepancy between the increase in tuition fees ($2,168 to $3,793 between 2012 and 2017 or $325.00 per year) and the level of protest it generated is such that one could argue that at some point, earlier than later, the increase in tuition fees ceased to be the motive.  It seems that the students’ motive was self-entitlement.  I could be wrong.
  • It would be my opinion that those students who tried to prevent classmates from attending class and succeeded in doing so acted irresponsibly.
  • I do not think Madame Marois will find sufficient money to provide free tuition or continue to freeze tuition fees.

Quebec within Confederation

As for the degree of separation now in place between Quebec and the rest of Canada:

  • double taxation,
  • limited validity of a Quebec citizen’s heath-insurance card, to which I will add
  • unilingualism,
  • etc.

No referendum has allowed this degree of sovereignty.  Quebec has a different Civil Code,[ii] which was a condition of Confederation.[iii]  However, a Civil Code deals with Private Law.  It does not apply to the relationship between the Province of Quebec and Ottawa, the Federal Government.  I must ask an expert to tell me, in a wealth of details, to what extent Quebec can act independently.  I suspect that by refusing to sign the Patriation of the Constitution (1982), Quebec may have given itself significant elbow room.

—ooo—

I would like my country to remain united.  Canadians are privileged.  We have social programs and people are usually tolerant of others.  We are a bilingual country, except Quebec.  Ironically, however, Quebec probably has the largest concentration of bilingual Canadians.  French-Canadian students often enroll in English-language CEGEPs and universities.

There is no police brutality.  The Mounties are a living legend.  The Canadian Armed Forces have their Royal 22nd Regiment (the Van Doos), a mostly French regiment.  Finally, at an individual level, there is very little animosity between French-speaking and English-speaking citizens.  We don’t bear arms and we pay our taxes.

I hope all of you are well.

Ad mari usque ad mareFrom Sea to Sea Canada's motto

A mari usque ad mare
(From Sea to Sea)
Canada’s motto

© Micheline Walker
25 January 2013
WordPress
____________________
[i] Blatchford, Andy (April 16, 2010). “Quebec student bill ‘worst law’ since War Measures Act: law professor”. Winnipeg Free Press.
[ii] “The Civil Code of Québec is a general law that contains all of the basic provisions that govern life in society, namely the relationships among citizens and the relationships between people and property. It governs all civil rights, such as leasing items or property, sales contracts, etc. It also deals with family law, as in the case of matrimonial regimes.” (Civil Code, Wikipedia)
[îii] Three Conferences, Confederation and Now: Civil Unrest 
https://michelinewalker.com/2012/05/27/three-conferences-confederation-and-now-civil-unrest/ 
 

Today, the temperature in Sherbrooke, Quebec is -23°C (-9.4°F).  In Victoria, British Columbia the temperature is -1°C (+30.2°F).  In Los Angeles, California, the weather is 21.1°C (+70°F).  I believe that is the reason why Canadian singer songwriter Joni Mitchell wants to go to California.

singer-songwriter: Joni Mitchell (b. November 7, 1943)
piece: “California”

Related articles
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  • The Week in Review & Louis Riel Revisited (michelinewalker.com)

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