Ferociously, Fiercely Fuming
That's Quebec's separatists for you, always bursting out of their skins with outrage over something someone said, somewhere, that they feel has the deliberate intention of diminishing the authority and the rightfulness of their claims to represent a nation, in and of themselves as pure laine Quebecers.
Sovereignty for the Province of Quebec is no light matter, to be dismissed with the flick of a casual statement. Nor a statement fulsome in condemnation issuing from the mouth of one such as France's President Nicolas Sarkozy, even if he does represent the mother country.
How stridently righteous are those like Bloc Quebecois leader Gilles Duceppe become, in their insulted umbrage at the nerve, the unmitigated hubris of an almost-outsider, to criticize the raison de'etre of Quebec separatists. "Do you really believe that the world, with the unprecedented crisis that it is going through, needs division? Needs hatred? Sarkozy demanded.
Not one to take being verbally assaulted without response, Mr. Duceppe denies being hateful. Indeed not, he has no reason to hate Canada and Canadians, they have been singularly generous over the years, in striving, albeit unsuccessfully, to comply with all the irritated demands that the province insists it is their right that the rest of Canada provide; from recognition of special status, to mind-boggling amounts of funding transferred to them, courtesy of one unctuously courting federal government after another. Quebec votes count.
And the rest of Canada can count, too. Knowing that Quebec receives a truly unequal amount of equalization payments, enabling it to offer its residents services well beyond those most other provinces can afford. The ongoing little games of strong-arming the rest of Canada, anxious to dampen Quebec's grievance, and avoid further threats of leaving Confederation, continue unabated. Pay us, handsomely, or we'll leave.
President Sarkozy does not appear to think too highly of extortion by any other name. And Mr. Duceppe returns the compliment by rejecting Mr. Sarkozy's unwarranted, ungracious, demeaning, and offending comments. "We can be a sovereign country and that does not mean that we hate Canada. On the contrary, it's a great country and I like the Canadian nation very much." As why should he not, since the binary relationship is so rewarding?
But the rallying cry for outraged interventions on the French-Canadian landscape is launched yet again, fomenting defiance, and grieving once again the loss of New France. Another affront to the dignity of Quebec and the lamentable inability of English Canada (let alone American historians and historical battle re-enactment buffs)to desist from wounding Quebecois sensibilities has erupted.
On the horizon another unspeakable event wreaking carnage on the sensitivities of a people diminished by their minority presence in a majority language and culture. When amateur historians with a thespian bent invade the province to provoke, in the theatrical-historical re-staging of the Battle of the Plains of Abraham. Not to be countenanced, the sheer nerve of these Philistines, seeking to celebrate the loss of New France!
The Parti Quebecois and Bloc Quebecois have raised their voices in a concert of fierce denunciation of this obvious attempt on the part of English Canada, in cahoots with the Vermont-based Quebec Historical Corps, with its historical battle re-enactors -all two thousand volunteers of them - in plunging proud Quebecers' faces in the offal of historical wrongs.
Despite claims from the re-enactors that this is meant to honour the memory of the event, not celebrate a triumph or a failure.
Much as they agitate and protest, they're unable to forestall the proceedings, since the National Battlefields Commission is a federal agency, and it alone administers the Plains. "There is no country in the world with any pride that celebrates its own defeats", moaned a Bloc MP. That is true; most countries who have suffered a defeat memorialize it as a tragedy, but this country, Canada, suffered no defeat.
No mind; the sovereigntists - separatists - are foaming at the mouth with unbridled hysteria at anyone seeking to arrive on French-Canadian soil deeming it appropriate to theatricalize their historical torment. This miserable historical event, this calamity which befell New France; the symbol of the abandonment of French rule in North America is a tragedy, and must be seen as such.
Rallying the troops for protests and damning the federal plot to further destroy French culture.
Then there are the sensible, level-headed, federalist-leaning Quebecers like the mayor of Quebec City, the federal Intergovernmental Affairs Minister also, who dismiss these hysterics. "I'm a little tired of hearing talk of defeat. That's not what I'm made of", Mayor Regis Labeaume said. And professor of history, Desmond Morton labels the protests for what they are; crass manipulation by separatists.
"Sovereignty is dying of collective boredom. It is not in a healthy state. They've got to find something to talk about... The favourite notion of Quebec nationalists is that we are being victimized by somebody", he said.
Sovereignty for the Province of Quebec is no light matter, to be dismissed with the flick of a casual statement. Nor a statement fulsome in condemnation issuing from the mouth of one such as France's President Nicolas Sarkozy, even if he does represent the mother country.
How stridently righteous are those like Bloc Quebecois leader Gilles Duceppe become, in their insulted umbrage at the nerve, the unmitigated hubris of an almost-outsider, to criticize the raison de'etre of Quebec separatists. "Do you really believe that the world, with the unprecedented crisis that it is going through, needs division? Needs hatred? Sarkozy demanded.
Not one to take being verbally assaulted without response, Mr. Duceppe denies being hateful. Indeed not, he has no reason to hate Canada and Canadians, they have been singularly generous over the years, in striving, albeit unsuccessfully, to comply with all the irritated demands that the province insists it is their right that the rest of Canada provide; from recognition of special status, to mind-boggling amounts of funding transferred to them, courtesy of one unctuously courting federal government after another. Quebec votes count.
And the rest of Canada can count, too. Knowing that Quebec receives a truly unequal amount of equalization payments, enabling it to offer its residents services well beyond those most other provinces can afford. The ongoing little games of strong-arming the rest of Canada, anxious to dampen Quebec's grievance, and avoid further threats of leaving Confederation, continue unabated. Pay us, handsomely, or we'll leave.
President Sarkozy does not appear to think too highly of extortion by any other name. And Mr. Duceppe returns the compliment by rejecting Mr. Sarkozy's unwarranted, ungracious, demeaning, and offending comments. "We can be a sovereign country and that does not mean that we hate Canada. On the contrary, it's a great country and I like the Canadian nation very much." As why should he not, since the binary relationship is so rewarding?
But the rallying cry for outraged interventions on the French-Canadian landscape is launched yet again, fomenting defiance, and grieving once again the loss of New France. Another affront to the dignity of Quebec and the lamentable inability of English Canada (let alone American historians and historical battle re-enactment buffs)to desist from wounding Quebecois sensibilities has erupted.
On the horizon another unspeakable event wreaking carnage on the sensitivities of a people diminished by their minority presence in a majority language and culture. When amateur historians with a thespian bent invade the province to provoke, in the theatrical-historical re-staging of the Battle of the Plains of Abraham. Not to be countenanced, the sheer nerve of these Philistines, seeking to celebrate the loss of New France!
The Parti Quebecois and Bloc Quebecois have raised their voices in a concert of fierce denunciation of this obvious attempt on the part of English Canada, in cahoots with the Vermont-based Quebec Historical Corps, with its historical battle re-enactors -all two thousand volunteers of them - in plunging proud Quebecers' faces in the offal of historical wrongs.
Despite claims from the re-enactors that this is meant to honour the memory of the event, not celebrate a triumph or a failure.
Much as they agitate and protest, they're unable to forestall the proceedings, since the National Battlefields Commission is a federal agency, and it alone administers the Plains. "There is no country in the world with any pride that celebrates its own defeats", moaned a Bloc MP. That is true; most countries who have suffered a defeat memorialize it as a tragedy, but this country, Canada, suffered no defeat.
No mind; the sovereigntists - separatists - are foaming at the mouth with unbridled hysteria at anyone seeking to arrive on French-Canadian soil deeming it appropriate to theatricalize their historical torment. This miserable historical event, this calamity which befell New France; the symbol of the abandonment of French rule in North America is a tragedy, and must be seen as such.
Rallying the troops for protests and damning the federal plot to further destroy French culture.
Then there are the sensible, level-headed, federalist-leaning Quebecers like the mayor of Quebec City, the federal Intergovernmental Affairs Minister also, who dismiss these hysterics. "I'm a little tired of hearing talk of defeat. That's not what I'm made of", Mayor Regis Labeaume said. And professor of history, Desmond Morton labels the protests for what they are; crass manipulation by separatists.
"Sovereignty is dying of collective boredom. It is not in a healthy state. They've got to find something to talk about... The favourite notion of Quebec nationalists is that we are being victimized by somebody", he said.
Labels: Canada, Crisis Politics, Heros and Villains
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