Canadians should be well placed to understand the complex relationship between Russians and Ukrainians. Ukrainians are inseparable from the history of Russia without being Russians. As Aboriginals and Quebecers are an integral part of Canada’s history, although they are not members of the nation that now dominates the country.
Another remarkable parallel is the connection between the size of the two largest countries in the world and the little political freedom offered to their indigenous nations.
Former Quebec MP Marlene Jennings and the Quebec Community Group Networks want to draw another parallel. They compare the situation of Anglophones in Quebec to that of Ukrainians martyred by Vladimir Putin. Although grotesque, this comparison is nonetheless revealing.
For Putin, the assertion of identity and the desire for self-determination of Ukrainians are dangerous nonsense to fight, in particular to protect the Russian-speaking minority in Ukraine. This autonomy would threaten their very existence.
While it is easy for us to understand with hindsight that Ukrainian assertiveness is not an existential threat to Russian speakers, Mr.me Jennings remind us how difficult it can be to accept the affirmation and autonomy of minority nations at home. This truth applies equally to English Canadians and Quebecers.
When we enter our respective chambers of resonance, whether Russian or Canadian, it is the demands of the dominant nation that are most often echoed. As the walls of the Canadian resonating chamber are as thick as the Atlantic and the Pacific, the sometimes desperate cries of small Aboriginal nations are rarely heard with the perspective and objectivity that would be their due.
Does Canada offer all of its nations the freedom to control the territories they inhabit, through borders and governments that would allow them to flourish?
The answer is, obviously, no. This question is nevertheless existential for our Aboriginal brothers and sisters. As democrats as we are, we nevertheless sacrifice the indigenous nations on the altar of our political history, our greed and our indifference. How many Quebecers and English Canadians support First Nations self-determination as they support Ukrainian independence today?
Putin’s ultimate goal seems to be, terribly, to place the Ukrainians in a reservation controlled by the Russian nation. This disagreeable parallel should force us to perceive more objectively the Canadian political edifice and its relations of domination between nations.
English Canada has always echoed those who perceive the affirmation of minority nations in Canada as an existential threat to the English-Canadian nation. Regardless of the absurdity of this prospect in such a large country and in such an English-speaking continent.
Quebec affirmation, an existential threat?
The Quebec nation is the minority Canadian nation that has been most able to achieve self-determination. The reaction of English Canada to this assertion was epidermal. Like Volodymyr Zelensky, the Quebec leaders who carried our reasoned affirmation of identity have been compared to the Nazis and the Fascists. François Legault is only the latest in a series that begins with René Lévesque.
In 1995, when the independence of Quebec became a real political possibility, the partition of the English-speaking regions of Quebec became just as much, like that of Crimea or Donetsk. The war in Ukraine challenges us in this regard: is the need for self-determination of minority nations equivalent to the need of minorities whose nation dominates the region? Does respected and substantial regional autonomy make it possible to meet these needs for self-determination and identity affirmation?
Unfortunately, these complex issues of national and regional autonomy are glossed over in Canada, and the political climate in this area is dangerously irresponsible. There is no need to look at the war in Ukraine to understand its consequences: our negligence on these issues makes us complicit in the cultural genocide of several indigenous nations.
The compassion that we would so much like to see Vladimir Putin gain demands that we look at our own political edifice with lucidity. Canada must share more territory and offer more political autonomy to all of its minority nations.
A concert of nations
This willful blindness is a reflection of narrow thinking that undermines one of the greatest achievements of the past 200 years. If European nations can contribute so much to the evolution of humanity when so many cultures are disappearing in the world, it is in good part because the political borders of Europe are those which correspond most closely to the self-determination of peoples.
Innovation, integrity, peace and exchanges between nations are the ingredients that best explain the success of the majority of the most developed countries on the planet. Although territorial size and demography are still synonymous with power, Ukrainian resistance and Russian isolation remind us of their limits.
As this tragedy unfolds in Ukraine, it becomes clear that Vladimir Putin is wrong on every count. The first being that Russia needs to control a larger population and more territory to remain significant. A more prosperous and democratic Ukraine is, however, in the best interests of both Ukrainians and Russians.
Canada must help its minority nations to become true free and prosperous partners, so that this region can finally vibrate to the sound of meaningful exchanges between the nations that inhabit it.
To do this, we will first have to respect the reasoned assertion of minority nations as the guarantee of mutual and shared success. Finally, English Canadians and Quebecers will have to agree to better share the territory with the Aboriginal nations.
It is about the development of the nations of Canada and our contribution to the world.