On the Aboriginal question, the CAQ government would do well to improve its nationalist reflexes. This should also be the priority of the Minister of Aboriginal Affairs, assisted by Minister Kateri Champagne Jourdain, the first Aboriginal appointed minister in Quebec.
Posted at 6:00 a.m.
To be a nationalist is to believe in the value of nations, these groupings of human beings who share a language, a culture, a territory, a history. To be a nationalist is to believe that the diversity of languages and cultures, or more precisely of “collective personalities”, as René Lévesque would have said, enriches humanity.
Language
A Quebec nationalist knows how much, in North America, preserving one’s language is a struggle. Quebecers represent 2% of the continent, Aboriginals 2% of Quebec. When adopting Bill 96 to protect French, the government did not take their languages into account. He recovered afterwards and even speaks today of Bill 101 “for the protection of indigenous languages”. This is considerable progress, but his first instinct was not the right one.
Another linguistic element. The four most used Aboriginal languages in Canada are spoken in Quebec.
Moreover, in Quebec, 80% of Aboriginal people living in the community know an Aboriginal language, a percentage almost twice as high as that of the province that comes second, Manitoba, at 46%.
Quebec is in the forefront of states where Aboriginal languages have a real chance of surviving, it must remain so: it is essential for Aboriginal nations, and it is a source of pride for the Quebec nation.
Culture
Language is not only a means of communication, it is the vehicle of a culture, and culture is the strength of a nation. A nationalist therefore wants to protect the cultural characteristics specific to his nation, for example its literature, its cinema, its poetry, its traditions.
At the heart of the culture of several Aboriginal nations, notably that of the Innu, there is the woodland caribou. Their bond with him is of the order of the sacred1. Their traditional way of life (food, clothing, tools), their spirituality, their nomadism, in short, their entire culture is built around caribou. During the 2014 elections, Philippe Couillard launched the following odious sentence: “I will not sacrifice a job for caribou. »
These are not jobs that the Innu would lose if the caribou were to disappear, it is a part of their soul. If the protection of biodiversity is not enough for it, the government should protect the woodland caribou in the name of the protection of the Innu culture. For nationalists, this should go without saying.
Another example. Spatial planning is the impression (in the sense of printing) of a culture, an identity, on a territory. Next year, the government of Quebec will adopt a plan to implement a first Quebec policy on architecture and land use planning. Indigenous nations will have to find tools there to imprint their culture on their territory.
Education, justice, social affairs
Being nationalist also means wanting our institutions to reflect our culture in their functioning and in their actions. Take, for example, Quebec solidarity. Our ability to pool our strengths is a characteristic that makes us an exceptional state in North America. This solidarity, built because of the obligation that we have long had to rely only on ourselves, is expressed in the solidity of our social safety net, by our credit unions, by the number of our social economy enterprises , by the great accessibility of our educational establishments, etc.
Aboriginal people also want the institutions that support them to incorporate their identity. They want more restorative justice in the justice system. They want to guide the actions of the DYP for their young people, they want a health network that gives more room to families. They want a school that incorporates their language, their history, their traditions and even their ways of teaching. A Quebec nationalist should recognize this thirst for autonomy and try to respond to it.
During their mandate, Minister Kateri Champagne Jourdain and the Minister of Native Affairs should establish that the Quebec nation must always act with the Native people as it would like us to act with it: that is to say, contribute to consolidating the identity of the eleven aboriginal nations of Quebec and involve them in its construction.