Great Men, Their Mistakes

Of course that's a matter of opinion. Not that even great men - particularly great men, for who would otherwise take note? - do not make their own errors in judgement, but that Rene Levesque that much-gloried founder of Quebec's Parti Quebecois and anointed by wild enthusiasts the 23rd Premier of Quebec was a great man.

That's an entirely selective superlative reflecting Quebecers' heritage and lugubriously profound sense of both entitlement and bitterness toward Canada.

This was the man - lauded as a great political-ideological-separatist leader even by some deluded Canadians outside the province, who first attempted to negotiate political dependence for Quebec. And whose exploits throughout that attempt and his harangues and his emotionally-wrought resentment of confederation found favour with Quebec's big brother, culminating in the infamous cry of Vive le Quebec libre! by General Charles de Gaulle.

Galling the rest of Canada no end. But the pur laine and separatist-devoted demographic in Quebec hailed their saviour as their - saviour - and his name is forever blessed. All this by way of commenting on former founder of the Bloc Quebecois and Parti Quebecois premier, Lucien Bouchard who has loomed back into public view.

And his most recent pronouncement has not been received favourably by his successors.

Top front of Le Devoir, the considered opinion of Mr. Bouchard, the result of his own personal struggle and that of the parties he has been associated with (no, not the Progressive Conservative party of former PM Brian Mulroney) that "Sovereignty is not achievable". Can we then, lay it to rest? Please...?

Not bloody likely, not as long as a full-blue-blooded French-language-and-tradition patriot still breathes his fiery resentment.

The now-redeemed-and-esteemed (in the writer's personal opinion) Mr. Bouchard informed his Quebec City audience that the Parti Quebecois's sovereignty complex and its compulsion to 'save' Quebec's unique character from the onslaught of dilution by English Canada does not reflect the spirit of its founder. (Could've fooled me with that one, but life is an ongoing learning experience.)

Pauline Marois must have been frothing at the mouth with furious indignation, but prepared to accept Mr. Bouchard at his word as a firm independantist, and that it is with deep sorrow that he voices his conclusion. "This wish for sovereignty can be practised in different ways", she responded.

And most certainly not by allowing the Liberal government of Premier Jean Charest to move forward with its preparedness to accommodate ethnic and religious minorities.

"Her former leader, former premier of Quebec, is reminding [Ms. Marois] that it is not a good idea to try to take over from the radicalism of the ADQ in these matters and to resort to demagogy on such an important question", responded Premier Charest.

That 'important question' being proposed alterations to the province's school calendar which would permit private Orthodox Jewish schools to teach on Sundays. Why the PQ would resist such an accommodation is peculiar. Spite? In a spirit of peevish nastiness?

Where once the province was heavily religious as practising Roman Catholics, Sunday is no longer regarded as the traditional 'day of rest', and certainly for Jews it never has been; as for them, Saturday is considered to be the traditional day of rest.

There are those in the know who believe that Mr. Bouchard's resignation from active politics resulted from vital inter-party disagreements. PQ members who saw nothing amiss in overt anti-Semitism; one in particular who helpfully pointed out the unfortunate failure of Jewish neighbourhoods to cast their vote for Quebec sovereignty, thus effectively proving their disloyalty to the province.

Why then, should the province go out of its way for Jews? Or, for that matter, English-speaking Quebecers? Come to think of it, immigrants? For their failure to instantly learn French, for their eagerness to illegally enroll their children in English-language schools, for their yearning to cleave to their own (exotic...foreign) traditions.

Some track Mr. Bouchard's critical comments this past week to the 2008 report by historian Gerard Bouchard and Charles Taylor on the reasonable accommodation of minorities, a report synthesizing testimony that the duo had heard while conducting province-wide hearings open to all Quebecers.

And where more than a tinge of xenophobia was evident among the greater mass of more tolerant Quebecers.

Whom, of course, the Parti Quebecois does not represent. Really.