Radically-Inclined Quebec
Like a dirty old Phoenix, the Front de Liberation du Quebec rises again. Kind of. It's as though it's never gone away. Well, actually, it hasn't. Not quite. The message is still there, although the only violence inherent in it now is its assault against reason, and lack of civility. The old accusations still resonate, the indignation and inferiority complex, the resentment and the angst.
No need to resurrect them, they've been front and centre for a long time.
Forty years isn't that long, after all, and the claims and the urgency have never been repressed. Now, when Quebec separatists are no longer seen as terrorists, they earn the respectable votes of ardent Francophones who believe like them, that the Quebec 'nation' should be liberated from the tedious torment of Canadian unity.
And, looking back fondly at their salad days of scaring the hell out of Pierre Trudeau's government and Canadian society as a whole, they simmer with hatred at the 'terrorism' that the state visited upon those poor sad Quebecers who were arrested upon the imposition of the War Measures Act. After all, exploding mailboxes is no big deal, just a sign of social ferment. People killed? Shit happens.
And abducting British diplomats to make the point that Quebecois detest their once-British masters just as they do Canadian Anglophones is just a simple way of making a point. All right, they did get a trifle carried away kidnapping a Quebec Cabinet Minister, but they didn't really, truly, plan to take his life; it just kind of happened, and Mr. Laporte is no longer a problem.
But removing the current Quebec premier is. And the leader of the Parti Quebecois is affronted that Jean Charest dare suggest to her that she "distance herself from groups that preach violence in Quebec". None other than a reconstructed Rheal Mathieu, found guilty of manslaughter in 1967 for the FLQ bombing that took two lives. And who now still agitates, and still tosses firebombs.
Why not? Isn't it an offence when businesses located in Quebec foolishly insist on retaining their English-language names and titles? This radical propagandist-thug and his associates are recognized for their good work on behalf of Quebec's aspiration for nationhood, through funding by - why, none other than former PQ premier Bernard Landry, among other unsavoury characters.
Ms. Marois protests accusations from Mr. Charest by heart-rendingly referring to "this little people in America, this little francophone people". Well, she's right there; little-minded to the point of insignificant socially, but politically - dynamite!
No need to resurrect them, they've been front and centre for a long time.
Forty years isn't that long, after all, and the claims and the urgency have never been repressed. Now, when Quebec separatists are no longer seen as terrorists, they earn the respectable votes of ardent Francophones who believe like them, that the Quebec 'nation' should be liberated from the tedious torment of Canadian unity.
And, looking back fondly at their salad days of scaring the hell out of Pierre Trudeau's government and Canadian society as a whole, they simmer with hatred at the 'terrorism' that the state visited upon those poor sad Quebecers who were arrested upon the imposition of the War Measures Act. After all, exploding mailboxes is no big deal, just a sign of social ferment. People killed? Shit happens.
And abducting British diplomats to make the point that Quebecois detest their once-British masters just as they do Canadian Anglophones is just a simple way of making a point. All right, they did get a trifle carried away kidnapping a Quebec Cabinet Minister, but they didn't really, truly, plan to take his life; it just kind of happened, and Mr. Laporte is no longer a problem.
But removing the current Quebec premier is. And the leader of the Parti Quebecois is affronted that Jean Charest dare suggest to her that she "distance herself from groups that preach violence in Quebec". None other than a reconstructed Rheal Mathieu, found guilty of manslaughter in 1967 for the FLQ bombing that took two lives. And who now still agitates, and still tosses firebombs.
Why not? Isn't it an offence when businesses located in Quebec foolishly insist on retaining their English-language names and titles? This radical propagandist-thug and his associates are recognized for their good work on behalf of Quebec's aspiration for nationhood, through funding by - why, none other than former PQ premier Bernard Landry, among other unsavoury characters.
Ms. Marois protests accusations from Mr. Charest by heart-rendingly referring to "this little people in America, this little francophone people". Well, she's right there; little-minded to the point of insignificant socially, but politically - dynamite!
Labels: Canada, Conflict, Crisis Politics, Culture
posted by Pieface | 7:30 PM
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