QUEBEC

In the 18th century French colonial possessions in North America seem to have been called, indifferently, Québec, New France or Canada.

In 1759, British forces under General James Wolfe (1727-1759) defeated French forces under the command of Louis Joseph, the marquis de Montcalm de Saint-Véran (1712-1759) at the battle of the Plains of Abraham. The battle took place just west of the then town of Québec, capital of French possessions in North America. Both generals died of wounds. Although the matter was confused, and not settled for some months, this turned out to be the battle that ended French control, not only of the neighbouring town and region, but of all but insignificant bits of northern North America.

Since 1608, the French had settled their part of North America with Normans and Bretons. These had grown to be about 60,000 Roman Catholic farmers and fur traders. They had adventurously spread through northern North America and down the Mississippi to Louisiana. Among their descendants nowadays are the Cajuns of Louisiana, the Acadians of Canada's Maritime provinces, and the great majority of the 7 million people who inhabit the present-day province of Québec, Canada's largest province.

In the 19th century a group of nationalist poets and historians sprang up who mourned the conquest (la Conquète, as they referred to it) of Canada by the British. Octave Crémazie (1827-1879), a bookseller and intellectual, was the best poet of these. Lionel-Adolphe Groulx (1878-1967), a priest, was the most influential of the historians. He interpreted the history of Québec as a continuing struggle of the canadiens against their British masters.

In the early 19th century the French speakers of Canada referred to themselves as les canadiens and to the English-speaking colonists as les anglais (the English). In the late 19th and the 20th centuries the nationalist pride of French Canadians grew, particularly when their desires were ignored or, sometimes, roughly overridden by the Canadian federal government in Ottawa. Among their grievances were the death by hanging of the Métis rebel Louis Riel (1844-1885), the partial suppression of the French language in Manitoba and Ontario by the actions of their provincial governments, and the introduction of conscription in World War I.

In the early 1960s groups sprang up which had a different agenda from earlier nationalist groups. Instead of wanting a more prominent and secure place in Canada for the French language and the government, people and culture of Québec, these groups agitated for independence. One -- the Front de Liberation du Québec, or FLQ -- turned terrorist. It began by issuing proclamations and blowing up mailboxes (this campaign killed one person). Then, in October 1970, it kidnapped a British consular official, James Cross, and the Québec labour minister, Pierre Laporte. Laporte was found dead in a car trunk some days later.

Under Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau (1919-2000), and at the behest of Quebec premier Robert Bourassa (1933-1996) and Montreal mayor Jean Drapeau (1916-1999), the government of Canada proclaimed the War Measures Act. This was a (1914?) piece of emergency legislation which entitles the federal government, apprehending a state of war or civil insurrection, to mobilize the armed forces and to order the arrest and detention without trial of suspected terrorists and others.

Hundreds of people were seized from their homes or places of business, often at night, and thrust into prison. Most remained for several weeks, while a hunt went on for the kidnappers and murderers of the FLQ. The streets of Montreal filled with armed soldiers and tanks. After a few days, contact was made with the FLQ. Following negotiations, the kidnappers were escorted to the Montreal airport and flown to exile in Cuba, leaving James Cross behind.

Thus ended the greatest constitutional emergency in the history of Canada.

However, it did not end the thrust for Québec independence.

The popularity of independence for Québec grew throughout the 1970s. A political party advocating independence, the Parti Québécois or PQ, had already begun in 1963. Its leader, the charismatic, rumpled René Lévesque (1922-1987), won power in the Québec National Assembly (Assemblé Nationale) in 1976.

In power, the PQ attempted to introduce measures to protect French language and culture, and to increase Québec's freedom from Ottawa. They also prepared for a referendum to achieve separation from Canada. To increase their chances for success, they introduced the idea of sovereignty-association, the idea that the new independent Quebec would, after the referendum, negotiate a partnership with the rest of Canada.

However, the referendum, which came to a vote in 1980, was defeated by about 60% to 40%. Even a majority of French Canadians, fearing drastic change and economic fallout, had voted against "sovereignty-association". The PQ licked its wounds, and continued to try to increase provincial power in preparation for another eventual referendum.

However, the PQ went down to defeat by the provincial Liberal party in 1985.

[To Be Continued and Revised]

Books About Quebec

Black, Conrad. Duplessis. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1976.

A later revised edition was published as Render Unto Caesar.

Desbarrats, Peter. René.

René Lévesque. Memoirs.

Scowen, Reed. Time to Say Goodbye: The Case for Getting Quebec Out of Canada. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1999.

A fascinating, thoughtful book that clearly explains the differences in mentality between francophone Quebecers and inhabitants of the rest of Canada on linguistic and cultural rights. Will open the eyes of English-speakers everywhere.

Trofeminoff, Susan. Views of a Nation.

Young, Robert A. The Struggle for Quebec. Kingston, Ontario: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1999.

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