Just a few days ago, Quebec was in the spotlight as rarely in the City of Lights. Quebec was first the guest of honor at the Paris Book Festival. The French President, Emmanuel Macron, who visited the ephemeral Grand Palais on the Champ-de-Mars, had the opportunity to speak with several local authors.
That same evening, it was the first Parisian of Royal Pub, the musical comedy of Cowboys Fringants. A real triumph for the artists of the show as well as for the members of the Quebec group who were on site and who were given a standing ovation upon their arrival by the thousands of spectators gathered at the Grand Rex in Paris.
To end the week well, the City of Paris and the Institut de France inaugurated the exhibition last week on the Pont des Arts A nomadic heartwhich highlights the graphic and literary universe of the writer and “immortal” Dany Laferrière.
It’s impossible not to be filled with pride when seeing how, through our artists, all of Quebec shines. The return to Quebec, and to reality in a way, was all the more brutal.
While Quebec shines abroad, here the leader of the Parti Québécois speaks of assimilation and the last-chance referendum for the survival of French-speaking culture. In this sense, Paul St-Pierre Plamondon adds to a theme which has already been politically profitable for the Coalition Avenir Québec, that of the fear of disappearing. We remember Prime Minister François Legault who spoke, in the recent past, of the Louisianaization of Quebec, affirming that it would be “suicidal” for French Quebec to welcome more than 50,000 immigrants per year.
Because of its history and its situation, the government of Quebec has a duty to make the protection of French an absolute priority, all parties combined. This rhetoric of fear, used by the two leading parties in the polls, is not only counterproductive, but also factually inaccurate. The most recent study by the Office québécois de la langue française, which has been the subject of several debates, has shaken the dominant discourse of recent years about the decline of French.
The path taken by Quebec since the Quiet Revolution should give us confidence in our means. And yet, it is the return of the victim discourse which occupies more and more space in the public space. When will there be a credible voice that will confidently respond to sermons on survival? When will someone speak of affirmation rather than assimilation?
Paul St-Pierre Plamondon spoke of the long history of Quebec in Canada to explain his catastrophist speech. It is true that the Quebec people have shown a lot of resilience throughout their history, but despite all the challenges, they have always been able to prosper and safeguard their identity.
Quebec is today recognized worldwide in the fields of arts, business and science, to name a few. It is good to remember this, because by being told that we are a people on the verge of extinction, we could forget it. Let us also remember that confidence is always more powerful than fear.