Posted yesterday at 5:00 p.m.
Defining the Quebec imaginary
Since the 2018 elections, which brought the CAQ to power, Quebec has put aside the constitutional debate to fully switch to the era of identity. While some predicted “the end of the old bickering”, now the question of the nation arises more intensely than ever, in a society increasingly polarized by emotional issues, with a strong symbolic content.
The debate on the French language, dormant under the pretext of a false “linguistic peace” for decades, was suddenly awakened by Bill 96. If the latter does not go far enough in the eyes of some, it nonetheless provokes the ire of anglophone groups and the Liberal Party with them. The question it raises is as simple as it is fundamental: in 2022, is it still legitimate to affirm that Quebec is a French state?
Almost two years after the adoption of Law 21, secularism still heats the spirits.
Can the historical experience of Quebec, and its particular relationship to religion stemming from the Quiet Revolution, be law after twenty years of multiculturalist hegemony? This debate, undoubtedly the most polarizing of our time, really concerns the right of Quebecers to define the rules of citizenship and integration in the face of an increasingly maximalist and intransigent interpretation of individual freedoms.
Similarly, immigration thresholds have become a key issue at a time when our capacity for integration seems to have been reached, with thresholds proportionally twice as high as in France and the United States. Once again, it is the very possibility of discussing it that is at stake.
Some brandish the famous “labour shortage”, supposed to silence any opponent, while others feign moral indignation at the idea that we might want to limit immigration: who are the Quebecers to decide who may or may not settle in their home?
What future for the Quebec nation?
Through these burning questions, it is a veritable showdown for legitimacy that is being played out before our eyes, a cultural war whose object is none other than the definition of the Quebec imagination, and with it of this which is acceptable and unacceptable in politics.
The question of identity inevitably directs this struggle around the role of the Quebec state: in the heritage of “masters among us”, can it still assert itself as a French-speaking nation-state, or is it rather condemned to walled in a multiculturalism prohibiting any structuring action to defend Quebec culture?
Admittedly, the Coalition avenir Québec is in power, but its discourse is not dominant among the intellectuals who shape the official narrative every day. The side that manages to win on this front, by imposing its vision of history and identity, will be the one that will master the political game, thereby forcing its adversaries to play by its rules in order to remain respectable. Like what the battle of ideas is as important if not more important than the electoral contest to decide the future of the Quebec nation.
The identity schism
Etienne-Alexandre Beauregard
Editions du Boréal, March 2022
273 pages
“Common” project, mutual listening
In 1998, Léon Dion had finished his book Rerouted Revolution with a reflection that is also relevant today, more than 20 years later. In a modern and increasingly pluralistic society, he reflected on how to build the future so that all citizens can flourish: “How to conceive of Quebec as a global society that excludes nothing and no one, that enchants the imagination, stimulates the intellectuals, permeates all social classes and the whole of the people, and projects itself into the universal in all forms of collective action? »
This is a question that has yet to be answered. As the provincial elections approach, the question of Quebec identity is of concern to all political parties. Professor and political specialist Frédéric Boily explains that the question of identity in Quebec politics has “become an unavoidable theme, thus supplanting the national debate”. Unfortunately, identity issues too often divide or risk dividing many Quebecers.
Take, for example, a subject that will surely become a big debate during the campaign: the idea of extending Bill 101 to CEGEPs or not. Is this the best way to protect the French language? Voices are raised to claim it but others remain resolutely closed to the idea of removing free choice.
Is it possible to come to a consensus on such an emotionally charged issue?
The theme of immigration has also been largely linked to the question of identity since the last elections. In 2018, the CAQ was elected on an electoral promise to lower immigration thresholds.
However, two years after the start of the pandemic, a very exacerbated labor shortage risks changing the tone of the discourse. Should Quebec welcome more immigrants? How to facilitate their integration?
Fight against racism and Islamophobia
Quebec is currently facing another major challenge, that of fighting against racism and Islamophobia. In 2019, when the City of Toronto declared January 29 a Day of Remembrance and Action Against Islamophobia, the Premier of Quebec flatly denied there was a problem back home: “There is no ‘Islamophobia in Quebec,’ François Legault told reporters just days after the anniversary of the shooting at the Islamic Cultural Center of Quebec.
The National Council of Canadian Muslims, as well as the Islamic Cultural Center immediately called on Legault to retract his remarks. It has now been five years since the shooting and Quebec Muslims still testify to feeling marginalized from the rest of society. For many, Law 21 on secularism has reinforced this feeling of isolation.
The debates that lead to identity issues will remain in Quebec. The challenge for everyone will be to encourage and maintain mutual listening.
It is not only the issues themselves that matter, but also how to deal with them. When giving a speech, it is as important to pay attention to those who may feel excluded from the debate as from the supposedly common project itself.
Who is Quebecois?
Raquel Fletcher
Hashtag Editions, March 2022
196 pages