You can ignore, denounce or demonize it, but the concept of nation will always bounce back, because it lives in the hearts of people.
Who knew, 30 years after the Meech Lake Accord, that calling Quebec a “distinct society” would become fashionable once more? Well, it’s back, courtesy of the Bloc Québécois, whose success rests on Quebec’s distinctiveness and nationalism.
I remain convinced that the accord was defeated largely because it would have “constitutionalized” Quebec’s status as a distinct society — an emotionally charged issue for many Canadians, including First Nations.
In this age of polarization, I’m not sure we could once more debate the existence of Quebec as distinct society, never mind a nation, with more serenity.
Which is strange, since Canadians view with pride their openness to diversity, a defining component of their country’s character. I wonder if tolerance of difference stops at the Quebec border.
Quebec’s differences are plain for all to see on so many levels. It has its own history, language, culture, civil law, business elite, immigration policy, school system, movie industry, foreign policy and quasi-diplomatic representation abroad, Canada’s largest linguistic minority and, of course, secularism legislation. It prefers interculturalism, which encourages integration of newcomers, to segregation-inducing multiculturalism.
No Quebec premier will sign the 1982 Constitution without enshrined protection for its distinct character. Even Philippe Couillard, whose aversion to nationalism was well-known, made it a condition. Justin Trudeau did not even have the courtesy to reply to the Liberal premier’s well-thought-out plurinational statement, beautifully called Quebecers, Our Way of Being Canadians, in 2017.
It is a document well worth reading if you think it’s an anomaly that Canada’s largest and second most populous province is not completely part of the country, and yet is able to live with that.
After the Meech fiasco, a wounded Liberal premier Robert Bourassa said, “Quebec is today and forever a distinct and free society able to ensure its destiny and its development.”
Had he called a referendum at the time — he did contemplate it — there is no doubt in my mind that Quebec would have voted yes, so intense were Quebecers’ feelings of rejection. But Bourassa, fearful of the economic consequences of separation, stepped back into safe territory.
To be honest, I’ve never been a great fan of the expression “distinct society” because Quebec is more than a society, it is a nation. Since Trudeau père, federal Liberals view Quebec nationalism as an evil force. Stephen Harper and the Conservatives in general were more in tune with Quebec’s national aspirations than Justin Trudeau, who views all provinces as junior partners in Confederation.
Quebec nationalism today is closer to René Lévesque‘s famous dictum: “Est un Québécois qui veut l’être” (whoever wants to be a Québécois can be one) than to the writings of Lionel Groulx about “la race canadienne-française.”
Which was the point of replacing “French-Canadian,” which included only those descendants of French settlers, with “Québécois.”
You can denounce the concept of nation, ignore it, demonize it, declare it passé or even dangerous. It will bounce back, because it lives in the hearts of people. Justin Trudeau’s post-national Canada, a country without a core identity, is an intellectual construct from which a rich common culture can never sprout and flourish nor a shared history coalesce.
I disagree with Jack Jedwab, president of the Association for Canadian Studies, who once wrote in this newspaper that recognizing Quebec as a nation would deny Canada’s nationhood. Does he say this about accepting First Nations as nations?
The Swiss confederation does quite well with four distinct peoples, cultures and languages.
Many Quebecers voted for a renewed Bloc Québécois because no other party offered safe haven for their national character. Not because the flame of independence has been relit but because the last four years have taught them that their distinctiveness is not respected.
Let me quote Christian Dufour, a non-partisan political scientist and commentator, in La Presse: “The Bloc is an objective vehicle for the inevitable and powerful reality that Quebec constitutes a distinct society inside Canada.”
It is distinct because it is a nation.
