We can rejoice in more than one way at the joint approach of Quebec and France intended to fight the “culture of cancellation” which is wreaking havoc on both sides of the Atlantic.
Fighting obscurantism is certainly an excellent thing, but it is also good to note that despite the primacy granted to economic relations, Quebec and Paris are still capable of initiatives on a more political level.
Of course, neither Jean-François Roberge nor his French counterpart, Jean-Michel Blanquer, made the slightest allusion to Ottawa’s role in promoting a militant multiculturalism which sometimes gets out of hand dangerously, but it is difficult not to to see in their output a snub to Justin Trudeau.
In Paris, we have certainly not forgotten the caveats he put in the defense of freedom of expression after the assassination of the teacher Samuel Paty, beheaded by a Chechen Islamist, while the support of François Legault had been unconditional.
For a while, Mr. Trudeau had been greeted everywhere as the role model of the politician of the future and a sort of antidote to Donald Trump. President Emmanuel Macron seemed to see in him a soul mate who shared his post-nationalist vision. He is not the only one to fall from above. Mr. Macron has already had this sentence which applies very well to the Canadian Prime Minister. “By pretending to be a humanist, we are sometimes too lax. “
Of course, we are a long way from the time when the storm was raging permanently in the Quebec-Paris-Ottawa triangle. If France’s obvious sympathy for the sovereignist cause has long infuriated the Canadian government, “non-interference” has obviously taken precedence over “non-indifference” since. France was quite ready – and undoubtedly still would be – to “accompany” Quebec on the road to independence, but still not to get ahead of it.
It could nevertheless still be useful to him in his quest for greater autonomy, as it had helped him to take his first steps on the international scene in the 1960s, despite the bad mood that this caused in Ottawa.
The cancellation of the “contract of the century” by Australia to the advantage of the United States was seen in France as a real insult by the Anglo-Saxon world, of which Canada is a part. Quebec may not weigh very heavily, but it is nonetheless a wedge stuck in its side.
Mr. Legault seems to have transposed the economic obsession which animates him inside to the exterior. The network of Quebec delegations sometimes gives the impression of having been transformed into a simple subsidiary of Quebec Inc., and we cannot say that the Minister of International Relations and La Francophonie, Nadine Girault, seeks to have a profile very high.
The Trudeau government, which does not hesitate to encroach on Quebec’s fields of jurisdiction, will certainly not want to let it take up more space outside. Conversely, a man who wants to have the recognition of the Quebec nation enshrined in the Constitution should quite naturally wish to make this nation shine more abroad. After all, that too is a matter of pride.
Until now, Mr. Legault does not seem to have sought to apply to the maximum the doctrine set out in 1965 by Paul Gérin-Lajoie according to which the internal competences which the Constitution recognizes in Quebec can be extended to its relations with the outside. However, it is never too late to do the right thing.
There was a time when the Sommets de la Francophonie offered Quebec an opportunity to assert its own personality. A federalist like Robert Bourassa did it as well as a sovereignist like Lucien Bouchard. Undermined by scandals and internal struggles, the Francophonie has unfortunately lost all of its luster.
There are, however, other forums to which Quebec has access. Jean Charest, who was in no way an enthusiastic nationalist, had taken advantage of international meetings on the environment to clearly assert his positions, to the point of transforming them into veritable foes where he and Stephen Harper publicly flayed themselves. .
Mr. Legault has decided to attend the COP26, which will take place next week in Glasgow, where he will trumpet his decision to ban all exploitation of fossil fuels on Quebec soil. He will probably not openly denounce the “dirty energy” produced in the rest of Canada, but the comparison will be inevitable. He may not have the ease of Jean Charest or his interest in international relations, but thumbing his nose in Ottawa is certainly not to displease him.