Posters are seen at Club Pays, a Montreal cafe and gathering place dedicated to Quebec independence, on March 10.Christopher Katsarov/The Canadian Press
Mathieu Bock-Côté is a columnist at Le Journal de Montréal and Le Figaro in Paris.
Translated from the original French by Neil Smith.
The Globe and Mail asked me to explain why certain Quebeckers (and probably a majority of them in the future) support independence. I admit the question is odd to me. To my mind, Quebec, like any normal nation, should enjoy a full political existence. Like the Greeks, Poles, Irish, Moroccans, Lithuanians and many other peoples, Quebeckers should have their own country.
Independence, for a nation, isn’t a gift or some symbolic token, but a fundamental good. None of these peoples would consider sacrificing their independence. Independence is a good unto itself.
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When Donald Trump spoke about wanting to annex Canada, Canadians instinctively bristled at becoming American. They didn’t need to lay out long arguments explaining why they were better off governing themselves than joining “the empire of our time.” Political leaders in Canada even borrowed their slogan “maîtres chez nous” from Quebec separatists. Yet English Canada and the United States have a culture and identity that are much more alike than English Canada and Quebec.
Quebec’s historical trajectory has led it toward independence, from its beginnings to today. From New France to the Conquest, the 1837-38 rebellion, Confederation and the Quiet Revolution, our vital instinct has always driven us to want a country of our own, even though, given the circumstances, we’ve often adopted a strategy of autonomy over independence. I write this knowing that a good proportion of French-speaking Quebeckers have internalized the idea that they can’t govern themselves and need federalism as a protective framework, as though their freedom and prosperity depended on it.
But let’s pretend this question requires an answer that goes beyond stating the obvious: Why should Quebec become independent, and why now? One could argue that during its founding in 1867, Canada was theoretically reformable: it could have been reformed in a dualist matrix, according to the theory of the two founding peoples. But I don’t buy this argument since autonomy is never anything other than unfinished and incomplete independence. Still, enough Quebeckers believe this theory for it to be taken seriously.
Separatist supporters wave Quebec flags as Quebec Premier Jacques Parizeau kicks off the referendum campaign in Quebec City in October, 1995.Jacques Boissinot/The Canadian Press
When the Constitution was patriated in 1982, Canada was reformed in an entirely different way: it would become a large-scale ideological experiment, through a multiculturalist matrix that dissolves its founding peoples and turns them into ethnocultural communities among others, within a pluralistic federation, under the sovereignty of a government of judges invoking a Charter of Rights and Freedoms treated as a sacred text and transcending parliamentary democracy and popular sovereignty, which is another way to abolish both. This could be seen as a machine for dissolving the Quebec people. As for official bilingualism, it doesn’t fool anyone: Canada is an English-speaking bilingual country.
Let me explain. This rationale is far-reaching: it leads to the erasing of Quebeckers as a people within Canada (even if they get to call themselves a “nation” as a token gesture) to the point of challenging their right to self-determination through external controls. Such is the role of the Clarity Act (Bill C-20), which clearly has no legitimacy. This same reasoning has enabled Canada to dismantle Quebec’s identity laws, like Bill 101, piece by piece over time. It may also lead to Bill 21, the Act Respecting the Laicity of the State, being diluted or struck down. We live under Canada’s guardianship.
This reasoning even challenges the founder status of French-speaking Quebeckers in Quebec. We’re now treated as a demographic majority with an illegitimate status whose privileges must be dismantled. The fact is that Ottawa’s policy of mass immigration will soon lead to the demographic drowning of the Quebec people. Obviously, to recognize this, one must view Quebec not as a mere administrative territory occupied by a population with an undifferentiated identity, but as the nation-state of a people, who may well become a minority in their own land within a few decades – and who’ll certainly become a minority if they remain part of Canada.
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This brings us to the present day. Canada has sought to demographically lock the political future of the Quebec people. The lock works well, as we saw in 1995, but it’s not yet permanent. A clear majority of francophones could break it in a future referendum. From this perspective, independence – which is an existential necessity for escaping a provincialized and parochial existence where world affairs are settled in Ottawa and the quiet management of family affairs is left to Quebec City – also becomes a matter of survival.
Here’s what will happen if Quebec remains within Canada: people of French language and culture in Quebec will become Canada’s bilingual population – before becoming an anglicized population with folkloric francophone remnants. Canada will have irrevocably quashed the nationalist and secessionist rebellion of a people who resisted. The Conquest will be complete. Only those unfamiliar with historical perspectives will find this funny. Conversely, an independent Quebec will be in a better position to integrate immigrants, who’ll be coming to a French-speaking country rather than a bilingual country where French is optional.
I’m pro-independence because I’m a Quebecker, not a Canadian. To me, Canada is an honourable country (even if it’s structurally hostile to Quebec), but it’s a foreign country. The contradiction between Canada’s multiculturalist system and the Quebec nation will be increasingly extreme in the coming years. Again, Quebec’s rebellion will fail if the demographic advantage of French-speaking Quebeckers is broken for good. This will happen soon, but we aren’t there yet. This is the big issue for the years ahead. Vive le Québec libre.