LETTER FROM MONTREAL
On the twenty-fifth day of the express election campaign launched by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, on August 15, in the hope of winning a new majority in the House of Commons – hope ultimately disappointed – the wound has reopened. Quebecers and Canadians suddenly found themselves as they see themselves in the depths of themselves, facing each other, not to say against each other.
On the occasion of the first televised debate in English between the main candidates, on September 9, a simple question asked by the host of the evening awakened the very Canadian concept of “two solitudes”. An expression taken from the title of the novel by Anglo-Montreal author Hugh MacLennan, Two solitudes, published in 1945, which enshrined the idea of two cultural and linguistic communities cohabiting on the same territory without really seeing or speaking to each other. A founding myth of Canadian complexity and its historical duality, which, depending on Quebec-Canada relations, fades or revives.
“You deny that Quebec has a problem of racism, yet you defend legislation that marginalizes religious minorities, anglophones and allophoness “, launches to the leader of the Bloc Québécois (independence party), Yves-François Blanchet, the president of the polling firm Angus Reid, appointed that day to lead the “leaders’ debate”.
In front of millions of viewers, Shachi Kurl cites two Quebec laws, Law 16 – which proposes to include in the Canadian Constitution the fact that French is the only official and common language of Quebec – and Law 21, known as “secularism”. », Which prohibits the wearing of religious symbols to provincial officials, police officers and teachers in particular. “Quebec is recognized as a distinct society, but for those outside the province, explain to them why your party supports these discriminatory laws”, she insists.
Yawning chasm
The blood of Quebecers only turns. Few have watched this debate live in English, but, a few hours later, it is a whole people who are moved to be again the target of a “Quebec-bashing” insupportable.
Quebec “Racist” and promoter of “Discriminatory laws” ? The (nationalist) Quebec premier, François Legault, immediately called a press conference to express his anger. “The Quebec nation is under attack in its jurisdiction, in what is most important: the French language. It is attacked in its values, in a law voted democratically and supported by a majority of Quebecerss ”(in reference to the“ secularism ”law), he says, visibly furious.
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