HIST 2600 The Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism

Quebec Nationalism and English-French Relations: The Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism
HIST 2600 Research Essay
POST CONFEDERATION CANADA (1876) UNTIL 1990's NO MODERN
POST CONFEDERATION CANADA (1876) UNTIL 1990's NO MODERN
Introduction
Quebec did not exist until 1867. Its existence came in the post British conquest of 1760 which saw the British crown take over New France. Quebec was created by the British imperialists as one of their provinces in 1763, even though it remained under the British colonization from 1763-1791. However, the francophone subjects obtained a royal directive to be governed by the French property laws. Quebec nationalism can be divided into three forms that encompass the Canadian nationalism (1791-1840), the ultramontane nationalism (1840-1960) and the socio-democratic nationalism that has been in existence for now over 5 decades. The Quebec nationalism is largely focused on propagating the political, economic and cultural agenda for the residents of Quebec province. Quebec nationalism has and still poses a great threat to the Canadian federalist government. Although the inhabitants of “Quebec themselves remain sharply divided on the issue of cessation, there is no doubt that the previous successive referenda have indicated that separatist politics are far from over especially in the most populous francophone province. The French Canadians hold that the need for cessation emanates from the need to protect and preserve the French language and culture. The research explores the social and political events that led to the emergence of the Quebec nationalist movement within post confederation Canada, and further investigates the demographics of the supporters of this movement from 1876-1990s. The essay focuses on the Quebec nationalism movement.[Bostock, William W. 1980. “The Commissioner of Official Languages: A Canadian Response to a Situation of Ethno-Linguistic Cleavage.” Ethnic and Racial Studies 3 (4): 415–26.] [Haque, Eve. 2014. “Multiculturalism within a Bilingual Framework: A Retrospective.” Canadian Ethnic Studies 46 (2). Canadian Ethnic Studies: 119]
Quebec Nationalist Movement: How it began
The Quiet Revolution
Quebec nationalist movement began in earnest in the 1960s through the quiet revolution that was best on the ‘masters in our own house maxim’. The quiet revolution largely characterized the period when the Duplessis Union Nationale took over from Lesage’s liberals. The quiet revolution emerged from the Canada’s rapid economic development after World War II. This period was largely dominated by opening of Lawrence seaway and the ballooning of the mining industry. This period also saw a massive increase in foreign investment, especially from US firms. Subsequently, this brought numerous socio-economic changes that modified Quebec’s class structure. Due to massive investment in industrialization, there was a great exodus of people who had abandoned the traditional agricultural farming in search of better industrial jobs. The mining and service sectors gradually took over from the agricultural sector. As a result, the Duplessis regime that was largely supported by agriculture became defunct. Nevertheless, this new of economic development ushered in a new class of capitalists. During the quiet revolution, proletariats and petty bourgeoisie emerged as the strongest forces that underpinned the nationalist movement in the 1960s. The 1960s also saw the bourgeois embrace the new wave of capitalism as soon as WWII was over. During this period, Quebec province went through numerous changes geared toward modernization in all the key sectors of the economy. However, Lesage’s economic reforms had far reaching implications. In 1961, the Economic Council of Quebec (ECQ) was founded and mandated to develop a long-term development strategy for the province that would incorporate all liberal government development reforms made in the 1961-1966 period. One of the key reforms was the modernization of electricity in 1962 under Rene Levesque. Through nationalization of electricity, a monstrous state owned corporation referred to as Hydro-Quebec emerged, thereby giving the federal government greater control. Despite enormous movement control, it accorded the French-Canadians huge capital derived from hydro Quebec project. In 1965, Quebec government created an investment outfit to oversee and manage collections from Hydro-Quebec. As a result of these developments, there was immense growth of the social and education sectors as more people joined the state corporation. Eventually, leading to proletarianisation of the public sector jobs. This rise of a new economic class, the spread of industrialization, and demise of the agricultural sectors are some of the few activities that characterized the quiet revolution of the 1960s. The quiet revolution began as a segment of Quebec bourgeoisie even though it was constrained by the federal structures that were largely taking over provincial jurisdictions as was the case with the nationalization of Quebec Hydro Corporation. Due to overlap of federal and state operations, conflicts began to emerge between the federal government and the Lesage government. This culminated in the creation of Quebec pension plan after the province withdraws from the federal pension plan. Through the quiet revolution, the Canadian bourgeoisie have achieved greater development that could not have been achieved under the federal government. It is at this time that different classes of people emerged and began to strongly agitate for an end to the national oppression. This led to the formation of diverse movements toward the end of 1960s. The Quebec nationalist movement gave birth to worker’s Quebec that became popularly known as ‘Quebec for the Quebecois’. These two slogans rallied workers, youth and women behind the struggle for the independence of Quebec. The main objective of the ‘workers’ Quebec was to call for an end to the nation oppression, agitate for the right to speak French and an end to unequal treatment of English-Canadians, discrimination of the francophone Canadians and equal privileges. The national movement became more predominantly associated with worker and student struggles who later received international backing. The workers’ Quebec was further fueled by a chauvinist statement that was made by an Anglophone CEO that his corporation did not require francophone. The struggle for the emancipation of Quebec from the national oppression was gaining steam toward the mid-1960s especially after the 1963 FLQ wave. The movement began to target the petty bourgeoisie, the queen and other symbols of Anglophone imperialism. In 1962, The Ralliement pour I’independance nationale (RIN) was formed, and thereafter began to propagate the Quebec separatist agenda. Although this wasn’t a unique revolutionary movement, its primacy was to agitate for cessation since it was believed to be the only way Quebec would realize genuine socio-economic development. However, RIN failed to penetrate the labor unions thus failing in the 1966 provincial election in which it garnered 8% of the vote. Quebec labor movements backed the federalist NDP that had been founded in 1960.[Carey, Stephen. 1997. “Language Management, Official Bilingualism, and Multiculturalism in Canada.” Annual Review of Applied Linguistics 17 (1997).] [Gougeon, Gilles. 1995. "A History of Quebec Nationalism // Review." Canadian Journal of Communication 20 (2): 276-278.] [Quebec History, .23 August 2000. Events, Issues and Concepts of Quebec History” Claude Bélanger, Department of History, Marianopolis College] [Carey, Stephen. 1997. “Language Management, Official Bilingualism, and Multiculturalism in Canada.” Annual Review of Applied Linguistics 17 (1997).] [Carey, Stephen. 1997. “Language Management, Official Bilingualism, and Multiculturalism in Canada.” Annual Review of Applied Linguistics 17 (1997).]
Although the Quebec independence movement failed to garner significant support, it however paved way for the marginal Quebec national movement that later galvanized a significant majority of Quebec people toward a radical struggle for emancipation from the national oppression. This movement was forceful and radical. It demanded for separation terming it as the solution to myriad problems that residents faced. Although the quiet revolution had gradually began to fade, the mid-1960s were characterized by a 1966-1970 economic recession, that saw an unprecedented increase in unemployment levels from 4.7%-8%. Still, this period saw an increase in inflation to about 3%. These events culminated to the national government move to halt its reform agenda. Besides this developments, Laurendeau- Dunton commission published research data that showed that Quebecers faced discrimination and inequality issues from the largely Anglophone national government. This report linked the inexorable state of Quebecers to work discrimination, force assimilation among other oppressive acts. Still, colleges and universities were not spared as they too faced their fair share of discrimination and forced assimilation. Still, government workers who had just won the 1966 right to strike case were slapped with new government legislation that prohibited worker strikes. Although the Quebecers had been promised that they would be masters in their own house, this was not to be as state capitalists presided over the state resources. Soon after the realization the quiet revolution could not bring about the envisaged socio-economic reforms, Quebec workers movements joined the middle class to stage an even more radicalized revolution against the national repression. Subsequently, the movement entered the public sector in 1966 leading to successive strikes. As the strikes gained momentum, Pierre-Elliott Trudeau won the Canadian election based on a central campaign message that Quebec nation was non-existent. Numerous confrontations and student unrest ensued as they too called for freedom of speech and assembly. Later, 1968 brought a new twist in the nationalist movement through a mass demonstration take took place at a Montreal university. The demonstration largely condemned the privileges that Anglophone universities were entitled to as compared to their fran...