The hearings on the bill establishing the National Museum of the History of Quebec ended this week in the National Assembly. Built on the ashes of the stillborn Espaces bleues project, the future museum involves a redefinition of the Quebec nation, as it was constituted during the Quiet Revolution, on the basis of a report prior to America.
The center of gravity of the hearings held in the depths of the underground pavilion of the Parliament House was constantly brought back to the question of the very existence of the nation. To the point where the Minister of Culture and Communications, Mathieu Lacombe, has repeatedly asked the experts to give their opinion.
“Frankly, it’s a factual question,” retorted historian Lucia Ferretti. There is a Quebec nation, it is here that we speak French, it is here that we have developed institutions that represent us. » The specialist in socio-religious history wanted to put the ethnic factor into perspective in her definition of the nation. “I always say that my ancestors are Marie Rollet and Louis Hébert, who are the first French settlers who established roots in America! »
The historian and sociologist Gérard Bouchard also fixed the beginning of the 17th centurye century the starting point of the Quebec nation. “It was with the arrival of the first French, I don’t see how it could start before or after.”
That said, New France should not be idealized, warned the author of A few acres of America. “It was colonialism, there was no freedom, no rights, all the profits that were made by entrepreneurial initiatives had to go to Paris,” he explained, giving the example of the brewery of the intendant Jean Talon.
For Gérard Bouchard, the future museum must highlight “inspiring figures”. Starting with the notary Chevalier de Lorimier, hanged at the Pied-du-Courant prison, at the end of the Patriot rebellions, on February 15, 1839. The historian also mentioned René Lévesque, who is currently the subject of an exhibition at the Musée de la civilization de Québec.
Former Liberal Prime Minister Philippe Couillard would not, however, have what it takes to enter this pantheon, joked Gérard Bouchard. “If you feel like laughing a little you can, but I mean he’s the opposite of an inspiring figure. »
Rare victories
For the Saguenay historian, the museum must “create awareness of identity” without falling into ideology. Its designers will therefore have to avoid taking a position on sensitive subjects, such as the origin of the economic and social inferiorization of French Canadians and the political status of Quebec.
The institution housed in the former central pavilion of the Séminaire de Québec will have to recall the struggles waged by the nation, in the absence of its victories, which are rather rare, as Bouchard pointed out. “It would be a question of showing how a small nation battered by history was able to recover by showing courage and determination. »
However, the blind spots in the narrative of the French-speaking majority must be illuminated, he said. Gérard Bouchard gave the example of the bad fate reserved for Aboriginal people and the discrimination against women which cannot be blamed on the “English”. The challenge will be to maintain a balance between “our good and our bad memories,” he said.
New people
Before the members of the parliamentary commission, Professor Catherine Larochelle put into perspective the antiquity of the nation which this museum intends to deal with. This idea of nation was only recast within the limits of Quebec territory in the middle of the Quiet Revolution. “If we take it in its strict sense, a history of the Quebec nation, therefore of this political-cultural project, it would cover the last sixty years, because before that, it was the French Canadian nation, and before that the nation, it does not exist,” explained Professor Larochelle in audience.
In other words, she underlines, the references on which we lay the very foundations of this museum have moved a lot and turn out to be unstable once we start to dig a little.
If we take the concept of nation in the sense of a political, social and cultural structure, she poses, this structure “appeared with liberal democracy in the 19the century “. And how can we consider what was there before this rise of a national idea, at the time of the patriots of 1837-1838?
For the historian Gervais Carpin, who was interested in the origins of the word “Canadian” in his work, the formation of a new people on the banks of the St. Lawrence took place in the space of two generations. “We see through the writings that from the 1640s, the word “Canadian” designates the colonists, those who are settled,” explains the specialist in an interview with Duty. The Frenchman of origin established in Quebec in the 1970s draws a parallel with his own journey. “When we reach adulthood, we have our identity made and we remain what we are while those who are born in the country become people of this country. »
Gervais Carpin puts into perspective the received idea according to which indigenous customs strongly influenced the initial settlement of the Laurentian Valley. Rather, it was geography combined with less strict regulations that forged the first inhabitants of what would become the Canadian settlement. “In France, the peasant of 1680 had the right to nothing,” explains Carpin. He’s coming here. He has an entire forest of his own for heating. He has the right to hunt and fish. He doesn’t have to pay taxes for a very long time. He is far from the powers. So an independent mentality is formed. »
The genesis of the Quebec nation does not lie in a single flow, considers Jonathan Livernois, professor in the department of literature, theater and cinema at Laval University. “I cannot imagine a French Canadian nation which arrived with Champlain and which has survived to today,” he said during his visit to the National Assembly. Gérald Godin’s biographer highlighted the diversification of what demographers call the “founding population”: “This nation exists, I do not deny that it exists. What I’m trying to show is that she was enriched with all kinds of things. »
“There are several meanings to the Quebec nation,” recalled historian Camille Robert. If we go with a more inclusive vision of the nation, it is the people […] who live here, who have a connection to Quebec. These are people who have been there sometimes for ten years; others who have been there for several generations. So the relationship with the nation is complex. »
The history of Quebec is not an abstraction, valid at all times. A museum is about the society that created it. Or at least he has the ambition. History is in part a story of a past that we construct, recalled Professor Larochelle. “It’s something we build. The past exists, it is teeming with all kinds of things and we take what makes sense, what is relevant to the issues we have today…” Each era recomposes its historical framework.
Duplicating
The National Museum of the History of Quebec will be located less than a hundred meters from the Museum of Civilization of Quebec. However, the mandate of this institution is similar to that of the planned museum, as deplored by certain speakers, including Jonathan Livernois. “It’s already there, the Museum of Civilization!” This is perhaps the biggest problem I see in the bill. For me, separating cultural facts, societal facts and history doesn’t make sense. I don’t see how we would separate this mission. »
Martin Pâquet, professor in the Department of Historical Sciences at Laval University, shares the concern of his colleague Livernois. It recalls the elementary distinction to be made between history and memory. “Pride is a feeling that is completely legitimate,” explained Pâquet, referring to the objective of the museum that Prime Minister François Legault immediately affirmed.
Professor Pâquet observes that “pride” is “a feeling which does not relate to history”. According to him, “it comes more from memory, from the feeling of apartment. We can be proud to belong to a community, but we can also feel guilty about belonging to a community. »
A place for Indigenous people
Indigenous nations must be stakeholders in the future museum, underlined the representatives of the First Nations Education Council received at the end of the hearings on Tuesday.
The councilor of the Gesgapegiag community, John Martin, returned several times to the past declaration of the museum consultant, the historian Éric Bédard, according to which the indigenous people formed in some way the “prehistory of Quebec”. This statement evokes “the infamous doctrine of discovery”, launched the member of the Micmac nation in English.
Minister Lacombe reiterated that he was not responsible for the controversial statement. “I understand that these comments offended you. It was very clumsy actually. Obviously, I wasn’t the one who held them. I would have presented it in a different way […]. I probably would have been hurt too. »