The (Anti) Quebec Separatism Post, Part Two: Why? Just... Why?

In 1980, the people of Quebec were given a chance to vote on independence for Quebec, and 60% of them rejected it outright.  Not content to give up their lease on life, the Parti Quebecois refused to acknowledge that the people of Quebec really did not care much about some illusory need for "freedom".  Several summit meetings were held between the separatist politicians and the Canadian government, notably failing to come to any sort of ideal break away from Canada should Quebec ever secede.  What these brilliant people did figure out was that they wanted:

-A free Quebec...
-That uses Canadian currency and is integrated into the Canadian economy in what is called "economic association"...
-That has the full protection and support of the Canadian military...
-That continues to receive money from the Canadian government!

This sort of song should also be familiar to Puerto Rican politicians, who have been working for the same thing in relation to the United States for a while now.  That, however, is a different story for another post sometime this week.

Anyway, my question to these politicians would be, well, why?  Yes, French-Canadians are a distinct culture within the country, and since the 19th century have pretty much been a sizable minority within Canada, but we are hardly oppressed these days.  In the first post on this matter, I did acknowledge, especially from examples in my own heritage and family history, that the relationship between Les Canadiens and The Canadians has been a rather rocky one at times, going so far as to truly make us into second class citizens.  That said, we also owe our continued existence as a culture to an incredibly amazing shared history with Les Anglais.  In fact:

-In 1763 we could have easily been packed up and shipped up as the Acadians had been, but were allowed to remain in Canada.
-In 1774 the Quebec act guaranteed us freedom of religion, language, and culture.
-In 1867 we were a necessary ingredient in making the country even happen in the first place, and everyone on both sides knew it.  Until nearly a century later, in fact, Montreal was the crown jewel of the whole enterprise, and the place where our economic vitality in relation to the wider world came from.

Yes, those pesky English-speakers were rather tolerant and mindful of us after all!  So how is it that we stayed put in Quebec?  We did not!  French-Canadians can be found in sizable communities in New Brunswick, Ontario, Manitoba, Labrador, and in smaller communities throughout Canada.  Northern Maine, not even a part of the country anymore, also has quite a few of us hanging around.  The truth of the matter is, Quebec does not have the rights to an entire people as their politicians claim.  It is not a shock that they would try to claim rights to us in general, however.  French-Canadian prosperity has often been sold out by our leaders, notably Sir Wilfred Laurier, who is almost single-handedly responsible for preventing a westward spread of Canadien culture.  The man gave a firm no to requests by Franco-Manitobans to appeal to the crown for rights to French-language public schooling in majority Canadien districts.

Perhaps the most depressing and powerful example of what life would have been like under continued French, rather than British (and eventually Canadian) rule is the Louisiana purchase.  We would have been dismissed and sold by the supposed superior nation.  1763, in my opinion, is not a year of the demise of our people, but our true birth.  Quebec needs Canada.

Does Canada need Quebec?

Absolutely:

-In 1814, with no British regulars available to safeguard Montreal and Kingston, the Americans had a clear path at the conquest of Canada.  Fortunately, and perhaps to the amazement of the loyalists and English-speakers, our people took up arms at Chateauguay and repelled an American invasion force four times the size of the defending Canadians and Canadiens.
-In 1867, Canada was born because John A. MacDonald found a powerful and lifelong friend in George-Etienne Cartier.  Quebec was the glue holding together the very different pieces of Upper Canada and the Atlantic provinces.
-Our present society, while an immigrant destination country much like the United States, is distinct in being one of the few in the world in which two seemingly hostile cultures are held together in unity by mutual consent.  Canada owes her existence to government by consent.  We don't exist without it.  We don't exist without Quebec, Ontario, or any of the other provinces.  We have acknowledged that we are divisible, and yet have always found a way to make things work and are a model of effective regional government under a federal system.
-How could we live without Poutine?!
-Bilingual road signs topped with small crowns are perhaps the best way to tell you have left Michigan and New York and are in a different country.

So here we stand yet again, watching as we did in 1995 for the people to get ready to come to a decision.  This time, however, Madame Marois, we are ready for your rhetoric and pointless drama.  You do not represent the sum total of Canadiens, nor even of your province for that matter.  Much of your land in the north belongs to the Cree and Inuit, who happen to generously provide their ancient lands for the generation of your hydro-electric needs.  Your distinct society is only distinct inasmuch as it contains the majority of our culture's population.  Quebec is far more amazing than your plans or that of your party.  May her rights, shared with her by Canada as the whole, endure far beyond the short-sighted reach of your political ambitions.

I hope to NEVER look across and see this as a foreign state:

My homeland, Ontario in the foreground, and my ancestral homeland, Quebec, across the river.  Taken at the confluence of the Mattawa and Ottawa rivers in Mattawa, Ontario.

And I never will, because we already have what we need and want as a people, and the voters will show you that once again, should you decide to waste OUR time again.

Signed, a French-Canadian in love with Canada.

The (Anti) Quebec Separatism Post, Part One: Historical Background

On September 4th, 2012, the people of Quebec elected Pauline Marois as the new premier (provincial leader, like a governor) of Quebec.  Madame Marois is also the current leader of the Parti Quebecois, a provincial party in Quebec dedicated to the cause of Quebec sovereignty.  She has already blamed Prime Minister Harper for promoting Queen Elizabeth II as a symbol of Canadian nationalism and motioned for the removal of the national flag from swearing in ceremonies of provincial legislators.  Quebec nationalism, it seems, has emerged like a diseased bear from a burnt out forest it was supposed to have banished to in 1995.

Before I go on, a little background on your author is necessary to understand his biases.  My father's side of the family is largely highland Scot with Canadian ancestry dating back at most a century if less, while my mother's side is Irish and French, with the Irish presence being here since the 1880's and the French presence pretty much having arrived on the ships with Champlain as far as we know.  This is where things get complicated...

Ever since time began, English folks and French folks have not really gotten along.  Sure, England was almost constantly at odds with other powers, especially their Celtic co-inhabitants of the rainy islands, but the arch-enemy of all things English has largely been considered French.  During the Protestant Reformation, when things French tended to stay Roman Catholic for the most part, this rivalry turned into bitter hostility.  While racial and cultural bigotry that grew into the Black Legend pretty much focused on southern European, and particularly Spanish culture, the people of England and English-speaking North America learned to despise the "freedom-hating, overly Catholic" French as if such hatred were a religion.  The Catholic-centric policies of absolute ruler Louis XIV and his would be allies among the deposed Stuarts did little to dispel the Franco-Black Legend, and Americans, to be fair, had every reason to be concerned about French competition in North America, as it hemmed them in and threatened their nice colonial existence with possible annihilation, if not by the French, then by their native allies.  Even after the French were defeated, the Quebec act of 1774 still threatened to make the thirteen colonies prisoners of their lands.

Fortunately, the French came to the aid of the Americans in the American war for independence, and Britain now became the grand enemy.  Things French slowly became more acceptable in English speaking North America, more so when the country changed hands and became a European bastion of democracy (stop laughing, I know that the Revolution and Napoleon made a mockery out of this).  Of course, try telling your average American or newly minted Canadian loyalist of 1800 or so that things French in North America were not still the enemy.  Les Canadiens, you see, were still Catholic and might even be out to help France get a new foothold on the continent should the tables ever turn back in Paris.  The loyalists in Ontario were particularly concerned that any freedoms that the habitants of the lower St. Lawrence valley might get would somehow undermine their own existence, less an actual concern (because, you know, the government in charge was British) than a continuation of some old bigotry.

As time went by and English Canada became more of a dominant feature of British North America, this fear and bigotry, which should have simply evaporated, grew stronger.  Though insurrections by some elements of French Canada did occur in the 1830's and later in the century under Louis Riel, they were usually accompanied by a general dislike of the ruling government (English Ontario also saw rebellion in the 1830's). By and large, French-Canadians, Quebecois included, knew that their survival as a culture depended on the existence of Canada.  Had they remained under French control, they (we) might have been sold out as easily as Louisiana was in 1803 (to say nothing of what would have happened to Catholic Canadien culture under Revolutionary rule)!  Had the United States ever gained control of Quebec either in the invasion of the 1770's or the War of 1812, well, we can see how well things went over for Californios and Tejans when Mexico lost a lot of her territory.

For a while, then, French-Canadians, including Quebecois, knew that they had a good spot for themselves.  Confederation had even been really kind to Quebec, what with all the strong provincial powers being given to help maintain her unique status.  Still, resentment, especially on the English side of the Ottawa river, remained.  Now, remember back up there where I said things were going to get complicated?

My maternal great-grandmother was as French-Canadian as French-Canadians could ever hope to be.  Back at the turn of the 20th century (and until the 1960's), however, French-Canadians outside of Quebec could expect little advancement socially.  She married one of the Anglais, actually a Scottish-Canadian gentleman, Mr. Wilson of Smiths Falls, Ontario.  Smiths Falls, like much of eastern Ontario, is about as high United Empire Loyalist as any part of the old empire outside of Britain could hope to be!  Needless to say, in order not to "create scandal" or make things rough for the family, my great-grandmother had to stop going to Mass, work on flattening out that accent of hers, and was expected to fly the Union Jack off the front porch. She was, however, a little too proud of her grand heritage to abandon it completely.  To some of her children she secretly taught a Catholic catechism and spoke French with, one of whom was my grandmother.  Though my grandmother, Lillian Cassidy (nee Wilson) was raised Presbyterian and sounded politely Canadian English (despite being Scottish too), she found that when she married an Irishman, "conversion" to Catholicism was a rather simple affair.  The French language, however, was a different matter altogether.

My mother was never raised speaking French, because even if sleepy little Orillia, Ontario could ensure peaceful domestic bliss for an Irish-Catholic family (which was remarkable in a town that featured Orangemen parades until recently), being this deep into English-speaking Ontario, even in the 1950's, meant that any domestic use of French would earn a few raised eyebrows.  French, they said then, was for the nuns at the local Catholic school to use back at their convent and maybe in class.

Back to non-family history for a moment...

In the 1960's, this sort of thing changed.  Vast societal changes were taking place throughout North America.  Racial boundaries were being openly and defiantly broken, youth culture was emerging as a fighting force rather than a deviant minority, suits and ties were giving way to jeans and t-shirts, and peace was slowly becoming more attractive than war for the first time in human history.  Quebec took part in this upheaval in what has since been known as the "Quiet Revolution" in which the Catholic Church lost her place as a cornerstone of French-Canadian society and nationalistic tendencies rose up for the first time since confederation.  All of a sudden, even deep into Ontario, things French became cool and exciting, especially among progressive-minded youth yearning for a new society and world, more so when Parisians started transforming the artistic bent of their city, especially in the Sorbonne.  Montreal, long the crown jewel of Canadian commerce and cosmopolitan vitality, was looking to join the ranks of such cities as New York, London, Paris, etc.

Then the walls came crashing down.  Rather than ride the wave of new-found popularity, the nationalistic elements of the Quiet Revolution formed the Front de Liberation du Quebec (FLQ) and started committing terrorist acts in the name of Quebecois freedom.  In 1969, they bombed the Montreal Stock Exchange, and in 1970 started murdering and kidnapping government officials.  Ever since this time, the unity of Canada has been called into question by many on both sides of the internal border between Quebec and the rest of the nation.  I call these people extremists and just plain dumb.   Come by tomorrow when I explain the current (post 1980) situation of independence, but stay for now as I finish the personal history.

While my mother was largely kept in the dark about her cultural inheritance (she did know who her grandmother was and was taught French in school, to be fair), the fact that social pressures against French-Canadians was largely dead and gone by the early 1980's meant that my grandmother was quite eager to not see her heritage disappear.  She fed me lots of tourtieres, pea soup, and things both burnt and made of too much butter.  We read through saint picture books that prominently featured Joan of Arc, King Louis, and a number of Jesuits.  She sang Silent Night to me en Francais when I was a baby and spoke the mother tongue around me whenever we were alone together.  By the time I learned how to speak, I was becoming simultaneously bilingual.  Because the rest of my family and the majority of my existence in Ontario and other English-dominated parts of my early years surrounded me in English, I pretty much always spoke it without moving between the two languages, but the inside of the noggin was a different matter entirely, and I was a terrible speller until high school, mainly because of the battling languages going on in my head.  I laugh at the linguistic dueling, because it is so emblematic of what I strongly identify with as a "home" culture, that of being a Franco-Ontarian.

The Franco-Ontarian flag.  The above on is flown proudly alongside the Canadian and Ontarian flags in Mattawa, Ontario.

You would think I would thus be all for Quebecois freedom, non?  I again give you a resounding NO/NON to this tragedy of a concept, despite my heritage.  Why?  Because Quebecois freedom is oppressive to French-Canadian freedom.  By no means do some malcontents in politics have a monopoly on the cultural identity of our people.  Again, come by tomorrow as I expound on this.

Wednesday Filler: Drought Amidst Beauty

Yes, it does seem a bit cruel to just post a photo or two of Le Nord after so much inactivity, so instead of a traditional wordless Wednesday, we can have the picture along with some previews of things to come, just so you all know we are getting back on track.

As you can see, the United States did not have a monopoly on the drought this year.  Canada suffered quite a bit too.  Lakes in the Boreal northlands lost as much as several meters/10 feet of water here and there, with the majority losing enough to expose some rather rocky lake bed.  As I noted in an earlier post on the  wildfires in Colorado, I like to generally stay away from politics and vicious debates on the nature of climate change, but seriously?  The evidence is all around us.  Lakes are disappearing, seasonal extremes are becoming more pronounced or muted beyond all recognition, and our planet is turning into something it should not have the chance to become in mere decades.

Speaking of politics, since we do have those elections coming up in the United States, and since apparently no one is going to pay attention to anything else until November 3rd (if then), I figured I might as well chime in on some issues that have to deal with the scope of American Voyages.  No, no, nothing about abortion, the economy, foreign policy, or even welfare, but yes, yes, much about the environment, immigration, languages, and historical memory.

Why am I diving headfirst into this mire of political warfare, you ask?  Simply put, because I am French-Canadian.  When I was up in Le Nord at the top of the month, I experienced the start of some potentially brutal cultural warfare opening back up again between things Anglais and Francais in the battleground (ordinarily a peaceful lumber/tourist town) of Mattawa, Ontario.  Quebec, you see, is thinking about independence again... or at least some of her more vocally irritating politicians are.  This got me musing about the place of French culture in the New World, which in turn got me to thinking about the place of Hispanic culture here as well.  In the next few days I figured I would take a look at who we are as a continental people(s).

I also figured I would get around to explaining what "Le Nord" is.

On This Day 150 Years Ago...

...23,000 people shed their blood in the bloodiest single battle in American history, Antietam. Every year around the 1st of December, 23,000 luminaries are lit on the battlefield in rememberance of the fallen and wounded.


Though this battle was not on my list of the most "important" events in North American History, it would definitely be on a list of the most sacred events in not only our history, but that of all of humanity.  Though the United States of America are often ridiculed and mocked as being hypocritical and not pushing the edge of humanitarian causes enough, the truth of the matter is that this country is and always has been the principle battleground of the war to define liberty, progress, conservatism, anything really, that has to do with the story of human freedom, good or ill.  Antietam was one such place where idealism, philosophy, and politics were expressed in human life.

Fortunately, the United States of America is a place where historical memory does not get ignored.  Antietam has been preserved as a national battlefield, a place where the living and departed can exist together and memory can come alive rekindled in our hearts.  The foundations of the National Park System, in fact, were laid down by military men who felt passion for their land, both natural and cultural.  Men such as Grant and Roosevelt wished to safeguard and preserve such places not only for themselves, but to invoke a deeper and more sacred patriotism in the hearts and souls of future generations who would walk upon the battlefields and natural places they sought to preserve.  Don't just take my word for it though!  National Park Service director Jon Jarvis has a thing or two to say on the matter:



And don't worry, American Voyages is back in action.  I just needed a break!

Land of the Holy

Bonjour/Greetings from back in Michigan my dear readers!  Your author has managed to return from Le Nord rather content with life and bearing a sack of some really pure white quartz in tow.  I expected the viewer counts to go down, but it seems that the blog is more popular than ever.  While I have a few posts related to my journeys to get set up, and a few older ones to edit, I am finding myself swamped with the business of life in returning to "civilization" after such a length of time.  In the meantime, feast your eyes on this wonderful shot of where I was!