I had a cataract removed this week. The operation was successful, but I haven’t been able to post blogs for a few days and must limit the number of hours I spend in front of a computer. However, I will attempt to post a revised blog. In the meantime, I thought I should send a little update on Quebec.
News
I have news to relay. Madame Marois, Quebec’s premier, has lost considerable support because she has imposed further taxation on Québécois: $300.00, whatever one’s financial status. She is also planning to send back to work people who are disabled or live on welfare. Obtaining financial help from the Quebec government is very difficult, despite the taxes Quebec residents have to pay to “two levels of government.” See Pauline Marois’ Offensive. Individuals receiving benefits have to prove they cannot work to the extent that people who should be receiving disability benefits do not. Besides, where would they find employment? Is anyone interested in investing in a Quebec led by Madame Marois’ Parti Québécois? Moreover, people are leaving the province.
a new leader for Quebec’s Liberal Party
More importantly, the Liberal Party in Quebec has chosen a new leader, Dr Philippe Couillard. It was not a huge victory, but Monsieur Couillard seems a good choice as leader of Quebec’s federalist Liberal Party. Moreover, if an election were called, which could be the case, the Parti Québécois would not get sufficient votes. This would help the Liberals. Madame Marois leads a minority government.
In brief conversations with persons I met during my trips to the hospital, I heard many express considerable disappointment with Madame Marois’ government. They know she obtained votes by giving students the impression that, as Quebec’s Premier, she would not increase tuition fees and that students may in fact receive a tuition-free education, including those who are impervious to instruction. I hope they also know that if tuition fees will rise by a mere $70.00 annually, it is, to a large extent, at an unacceptable cost to the elderly and to the needy.
Philippe Couillard would Sign the patriated constitution
The truly good news is that, if elected to the Premiership of Quebec, Monsieur Couillard would probably sign the Patriated Constitution, honouring the contract Quebec entered into when Canada became a confederation: the British North America Act, 1867. For Quebeckers, the priority is employment. It is unfortunate that they should be unable to see that the creation of jobs depends, to a very large extent, on Quebec’s place among Canada’s ten provinces. There has to be stability in Quebec.
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:
“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.
“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)
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 languefrançaise, 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.
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.)
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 PremierPauline 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
______________________________[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.)
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 groupsdeclared 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.
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 Québécoisdecreed to freeze tuition fees.
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 differentCivil Code,[ii]which was a condition of Confederation.[iii]However, aCivil 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 tosign 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.
A mari usque ad mare (From Sea to Sea) Canada’s motto
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”
President Obama is devoting so much energy to unite his country. He is fighting what Thomas Hobbes called a “private force” and viewed as “unlawfull.”
As you probably know, in Quebec, sovereignists and indépendantistes, initially called separatists are advocating secession from Canada and have done so since the 1960s. Pauline Marois is the leader of the Parti Québécois, the péquistes (PQ), as they are called, and, on 4 September 2012, she was elected Premier of the Province of Quebec. It was a narrow victory.
“A Quebec election that was too close to call has turned out to be just that: less than one percentage point – about 40,000 votes – separated the Parti Québécois [separatist]and the Liberal party [federalist] in the final ballot last night, with the third party Coalition Avenir Québec close behind.”(ANTONIA MAIONI, The Globe and Mail, Published Wednesday, Sep. 05 2012, 7:56 AM EDT. Last updated Wednesday, Sep. 05 2012, 7:59 AM EDT)
A Man Dies and a second man is critically injured.
Matters worsened. On the evening of 4 September 2012, as Madame Marois was preparing to celebrate her victory, 62-year-old Richard Henry Bain aimed at Madame Marois whose life was saved by 48-eight-year-old Denis Blanchette. However, the shooter killed Denis Blanchette and seriously injured a second man.
(please click on the picture to enlarge it)
July 22 (left), May 22 (up) and April 15 (center) demonstrations and Victoriaville riots (down). (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
At this point, I must step backward, as I need to tell about Madame Marois’ campaign.
Quebec students go on strike (February 13, 2012 – September 7, 2012)
In the spring of 2012, students enrolled in Quebec universities and CEGEPS[i] (numerically, Grades 12 & 13) started opposing a small raise in tuition fees (from $2,168 to $3,793 between 2012 and 2017 (Quebec student protests, Wikipedia). At that moment, tuition fees paid by Quebec students were approximately half the fees paid by my former students in Nova Scotia. The students’ demands were therefore unrealistic.
La Classe
The movement was soon named Coalition large de l’Association pour unesolidarité syndicale étudiante (CLASSE). Not only were the students’ demands unrealistic, but they organized increasingly disorderly demonstrations. It was “[t]he largest act of civil disobedience in Canadian History,” between 400,000 and 500,000 people marched in downtownMontreal on May 22.[ii]
“On June 12, 2012, some protesters were referring to local police authorities as SS and anti-police pamphlets using the swastikas were distributed.” (Quebec student protests, Wikipedia)
Madame Marois (Parti Québécois) steps in
Carré rouge
Parti Québécois leader, Pauline Marois, stepped in and “supported” the students’ demands. She wore their symbol, a red square, and she became very visible. This won her a great deal of publicity. It would be my opinion that endorsing the students’ demands benefitted Madame Marois.
Bill 78
The strike was problematical. For instance, it jeopardized the completion of an academic term.
Therefore, 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).
On 27 August 2012, “[p]rotesters def[ied] back-to-school law as Quebec universities reopened]” (The Globe and Mail).
Yet, on November 8, 2012, Madame Marois stated that free tuition was “very difficult” (see The Globe and Mail). (The students wanted free tuition.) Did she not know this in the Spring of 2012?
Province of Quebec, red; Canada, white
Comments
The demonstrations were disorderly and had to be contained, which costs Premier Jean Charest’s government a fortune.
In all likelihood, Madame Marois benefitted by involving the students. She seemed a concerned mother to students who were being abused by the Liberal Party, then in power.
A man died in an attempt to protect Premier-elect Pauline Marois.
Tuition fees. Can Madame Marois make ends meet?
Dissent and Faction
Madame Marois’ Parti Québécois is advocating “sovereignty” or separation from the other provinces of Canada, which means dissent or faction and is not insignificant. On the contrary! But, I wonder whether or not Madame Marois’ Parti Québécois and fellow sovereignists, or indépendantistes are fully aware of the consequences of a separation from Canada.
My Canada & a possible separation scenario
Canada is an officially bilingual country. It protects the French language. That could end for French-speaking Canadians living outside Quebec. The Federal Government might not agree to remain bilingual and bicultural.
There would be a country separating the Maritime Provinces of Canada from Ontario and the rest of Canada.
French-speaking veterans of World War II, who landed on the beaches of Normandy on D-Day, would be very confused. They were serving their country, Canada.
There could be resentment between the two “countries.” Many Québécois would be dissatisfied, and there could be an exodus on the part of Anglophone Quebecers.
If there is an exodus, there would be fewer taxpayers.
And, to quote The Globe and Mail once again, “less than one percentage point – about 40,000 votes – separated the Parti Québécois and the Liberal party.”
But I would go further…
Past referendums have not supported separation from Canada. In other words, the people of Quebec have yet to agree to a separation from the rest of Canada.
Yet, unlike my Nova Scotia health-insurance card, which was valid everywhere in Canada, including Quebec, my Quebec health-insurance card provides limited coverage outside Quebec.
I pay taxes levied by the Quebec government (5%) and taxes levied by the Federal government (10%).
It would appear that the above is the price Québécois and Quebecers pay because Quebec failed to sign the Patriated Constitution of 1982. There is a substantial degree of duplication: a government inside a government. What I would like to know is whether or not Quebec’s government has been mandated to start walking away from Ottawa.
As for the manner in which Madame Marois was elected to the Premiership of Quebec, it has been described as “opportunistic” (The National Post, 21 June 2012)? There is nothing wrong with seizing the moment. However, the goal may defeat the means and the means defeat the goal. At any rate, Quebec now has its own flag day. I should be very pleased (Quebec creates its own flag day; Fleur-de-lis to be feted every Jan. 21 [timescolonist.com]).
There were deaths in the 1960s and, on 4 September 2012, Denis Blanchette was shot protecting Parti Québécois Leader Pauline Marois. Human life is fragile and so very precious. I’m certain Denis Blanchette’s life was dear to him and to his family and friends. So none of this is banal.If Quebec does want to secede from the rest of Canada, persons whose integrity and good will are above suspicion will have to negotiate acceptable terms.
However, what remains a mystery in my eyes is just why Quebec has not signed the long Patriated Constitution of Canada (1982). It has been 31 years since it arrived on the North-American side of the Atlantic. A referendum held in May 1980 did not allow Quebec to negotiate a new partnership with Ottawa. The indépendantistes were then named the Mouvement Souveraineté-Association, a “forerunner” of the Parti Québécois.
The above links tell a different story. How could I be so forgetful? The Front de Libération du Québec (the Quebec Liberation Front) no longer exists. However, on 4 September 2012, the day Pauline Marois of the Parti Québécois, an indépendantiste (separatist) Party, was elected Premier of the Province of Quebec,[i] someone tried to shoot her. The shooter, 62-year-old Richard Henry Bain, lost his footing when an alarmed individual intervened, preventing Mr Bain from killing Quebec’s Premier-elect Pauline Marois. The shooter then aimed at 48-year-old Denis Blanchette, the person who intervened, killing him and critically injuring a second man.
Parti Québécois
This incident was not strictu sensu terrorism. The man who tried to kill Premier-elect Pauline Marois was not a member of a terrorist organization. He acted alone and it has yet to be determined whether or not he is fit to stand trial. However, using plain common sense, it would seem reasonable to assume Mr Bain was extremely distraught and that the Parti Québécois’ victory may have angered him. He muttered, in French, “les anglophones se réveillent” (the Anglophones are waking up) and, in English, that “[h]e want[ed] to cause trouble.”
For many Québécois and Quebecers, a Parti Québécois victory means yet another referendum: “to separate” or “not to separate” from Canada. That’s what has happened in the past and it has been motivation to leave Quebec. However, Madame Marois’ victory does not seem no have perturbed anyone seriously, except Mr Bain. Montreal is a very attractive and cosmopolitan city and will probably remain as it is, whichever way the pendulum swings.
However, as I wrote in my earlier post, Quebec has yet to sign the Patriated Constitution, ie. the Constitutional Act of 1982, which poses difficulties. There have been attempts to solve this problem, one of which was the proposed Meech Lake Accord[I] (1987). Had the various Premiers agreed, Quebec would have become an officially “distinct society,” which it is, unofficially or officieusement. Given the circumstances, a deadlock, it may have been in the best interest of all parties concerned to pour “un peu d’eau dans leur vin,” ie. to make concessions in order to maintain Canadian unity. The people of Quebec are sitting between two chairs. They are a country within a country, Hobbes’ “private force.”
Which takes us to gun ownership…
So, last September 4 (2012), Pauline Marois, the current Premier of Quebec, was shot at, a man died, and a second man was critically injured. Although, the federal government of Canada has relaxed Canada’s gun-control legislation, I do not think this change was a factor. But given events in the United States, the rapid dissemination of debates through social networks such as Twitter, and last September’s attempt to assassinate Madame Marois, gun-control will and may already be a factor.
What happened to me will probably happen to others. They will suddenly remember, as I did, that Charles Henry Bain tried to shoot Quebec Premier-elect Pauline Marois. The American experience, the Newtown massacre in particular, will colour, probably to a lesser than greater extent, the Canadian experience. In fact, Madame Marois is now remembering that a man tried to assassinate her. The event is no longer a “glitch.” Just click on the above links. The National Riffle Association (NRA) and the militias seem an aberration to me. Were it not that Canada trusts President Obama and his administration, we just might fear the NRA would gain supporters here. As I wrote on 17 January, the Obama administration needs a great deal of support and it needs it now.
Jacques Cartier Stamp, 1934 issue
Jacques Cartier (31 December 1491 – 1 September 1557) claimed the “country of Canada” for France in 1534. His three ships were called la Grande Hermine, la Petite Hermine and l’Émérillon. He captured chief Donnacona’s two sons Domagaya and Taignoagny, but they were returned to their father a year later during Cartier’s second trip in 1535–1536. Cartier waited too long, so ice prevented him from sailing back to France. As we will see, Cartier’s men fell ill. Cartier came back to Canada in 1540–1541 in the hope of settling the “Kingdom of the Saguenay.” It was too great a risk, so he went back to France.
One of Jacques Cartier’s Three Boats
The Canadian Experience
I do not expect a heated debate. Unlike the United States, Canada did not have a Wild West. In Canada, the “security of a free state,” the principle undergirding but now nullifying the Second Amendment, has not demanded that civilians bear arms. Our November 15, 2012 heroine, Madeleine Jarret de Verchères, lived in a fortress and had guns at her disposal, but that was a long time ago.
Survival …
The following thought may not have reached all if any textbooks, but the truth is that, from the earliest days of New France, Canadians have needed the Amerindians. Jacques Cartier’s men would not have survived their first winter in Canada (1535-1536). They were dying of scurvy. The Amerindians could have let them die, but didn’t. Instead, they supplied the marrooned French with thuja occidentalisor annedda. The men survived. Annedda, contained Vitamin C, the remedy, and could be made using birchbark.
Moreover, to travel westward and collect Canada’s gold: beaver pelt, French settlers, coureurs des bois to begin with, and, later, voyageurs, needed the Algonkian birchbark canoe. If a canoe was destroyed shooting down potentially deadly rapids, one could be rebuilt without recourse to anything that was not immediately available. In fact, the canoe used by voyageurs and explorers may well become one of the seven wonders of Canada (CBC.ca). Amerindians also fed the voyageurs. They prepared sagamité.
As for élite voyageurs who wintered west, minding the company store, they had signed a three-year contract, at first, with a bourgeois and, later, with either the Hudson’s Bay Company, established in 1670, or the North-West Company, active from 1779 to 1821. They may have had a wife on the shores of the Saint Lawrence River, to whom they sent money, but the voyageurs needed a spare wife, an Améridienne. Thus a people was born: the Métis.
Métis Family, by Peter Rindisbacher, ca. 1826 (Bata Shoe Museum P80.982) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Peter Rindisbacher (12 April 1806 – 12 August or 13 August 1834; aged 28)
We know, moreover, that France was somewhat slow in sending women to Canada. The filles du roy, the King’s Daughters, arrived between 1663 and 1673 and many married men who were members of the Régiment de Carignan-Salières. These soldiers arrived in the middle of 1665. They were invited to stay in New France where most became seigneurs. Among French-speaking Canadians whose ancestors arrived in New France before 1663, many, if not most, have Amerindian ancestry.
The Snowshoe and Canoe Mythified
It follows that Canadians have mythified the beaver, the canoe, the lumberman’s snowshoes and Louis Riel, the Métis “Father of Manitoba,” but a tragic figure in the history of Canada. Despite an endless border with the United States, for most of Canada’s history, its citizens have not required firearms to ensure their security. Not only did Canada need its Amerindians, but there was too little room in the beaver-pelt laden canoes to accommodate several rifles. Moreover, rumor has it that the Mounties arrived before the settlers. As for settlers, they were directed to specific areas.
Yet Canada has its factious “private force” (Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan, Part II, xxii), the separatists. For a few years, during the 1960s, the “private force” had its terrorist wing. Canadians do not bear arms, but last September 4, someone, not an indépendantiste, did try to shoot Pauline Marois and caused the useless death of Denis Blanchette, the man who tried to prevent an assassination. He will never come back and Madame Marois now remembers. But, will she remember long enough not to hold a referendum?
Everybody voted and Madame Pauline Marois, the leader of the Parti Québécois, is Quebec’s new Premier. Shots were fired as the Parti Québécois was starting to celebrate, so madame Marois was quickly removed from the stage by bodyguards. One person was killed and one critically injured.
Earlier today I interviewed several individuals. I asked these persons to give me one reason why they voted for an indépendantiste party, but no one could provide me with my one reason. One person told me he had at least fifty reasons, but he added that he did not have the time to give me his reasons. Name one, I asked. He repeated that he was too busy.
For the last three days,Menaud, maître-draveurhas been on my mind. It’s a novel I taught in one of my courses on French-Canadian/Quebec literature. I remember asking my students how they would feel if someone entered their house and started using it as if it were their house. They always answered that this would be unacceptable to them. I did not comment. They did.
That mountain is our mountain, our global mountain.
The News
In this regard, I have updated our newspaper links for those of you who read newspapers. I should report that, according to Montreal‘s La Presse, the Montreal Police is sending to the Government of Quebec a bill totalling at least 10 million dollars, in overtime. How unconscionable on the part of the Parti québécois to inflict so harsh a penalty on the people.
Most people have yet to realize that the students were used by the Parti Québécois. There will no doubt be an election and I believe that it will take place in less than three months from now. That too will be very costly. Matters were fine as they were.
Just I was researching the CPR (Canadian Pacific Railway), I heard there might be a CPR strike. I will have to investigate.
The Demonstrations are not abetting. This strike seems part of a campaign to defeat the Quebec government in the next election. I cannot imagine a return to power of the Parti Québécois and certainly not under Pauline Marois. It could be that she did not realize she was playing with fire, but as leader of a political party, she should have known. She has used the students to brew discontent. I am more and more convinced that this strike is all about politics and creating disorder.
I apologize for not posting yesterday’s front pages, but I was exhausted. Writing my little article on Louis Riel allowed me to assess these events, but it also tired me out. Louis Riel was the victim of Orangemen. He is the Father of Manitoba and one of the Fathers of Confederation. He is Canada’s foremost folk-hero.
Flag of Quebec City, Quebec, Canada. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Current Events in Quebec
For those of you who wish to keep up with current events in Quebec, I am listing a number of links.
Yesterday (May 16), the students were prevented from re-entering the classroom by unsavoury and potentially dangerous groups: gangs.
Given the threat to the students and to their teachers, the Quebec Government has ordered an end to the tuition strike. There was violence between 1960 and 1970, so the presence of gangs preventing the students from attending their classes has to be taken very seriously.
I saw Madame Marois on television. She was asking the premier to act as a “good father” (the « bon père » notion of the Quebec Code civil fr/ Civil Code en) to the students and sit with them. I am hearing the word “negotiations.” To what extent should a Premier negotiate? Madame Marois spoke about attentive mothers who talk with their children, etc.
As a bon père, monsieur Charest is putting an end to the academic year and to the strike. I believe monsieur Charest will ask the population to decide: a referendum of some kind.
