To tell you the truth, I was holding back tears the other evening while listening to Celine Dion tell us about her tragedy. On NBC, then on TVA, there were countless millions of us, all over the world, reaching out for a handkerchief, so moving was the small but energetic child of Charlemagne, whom talent took to the heights and who swears to return despite the torment his body inflicts on him.
To tell you the truth, I was captivated by the mastery of the codes of gigantism, those of the protagonist forced into tragic heroism and those of the heartbreak of love combined by Denis Villeneuve, Bécancour’s child, in Dune which is, according to Steven Spielberg, one of the greatest science fiction films ever made.
To tell you the truth, I couldn’t believe that the flagship American show 60 Minutes such a panegyric of Yannick Nézet-Séguin, this conductor son of Montreal, unfolds, that we now rush from one symphony hall to another.
The César for best foreign film goes to Monia Chokri, born in Sainte-Foy to a Tunisian father, for the intimate Simple like Sylvainwinning against Oppenheimerexcuse me, doesn’t it amount to national happiness in a bottle?
No, but is it normal, this creativity which draws Quebecers to the world summits of quality and respect? You will tell me, it is in culture. You have to be above average at something. Think again: Yoshua Bengio, an adopted Quebecer who is one of the fathers of artificial intelligence, anxious that his offspring will go wrong, is among the 100 most influential people on the planet this year, according to Time. It is consulted from the UN and the White House.
But it’s the economy that counts, right? Let’s admit. Have you noticed that we now have to refuse entry to foreign multinationals who are rushing to our gate to take advantage of what we have spent nearly 75 years building: our clean energy and our education system? Refusing foreign investments, do you know many nations that are this rich?
Our reputation, you say? When we calculate that, in recent years, half a million temporary migrants — workers, asylum seekers, students — have crossed our borders, not counting permanent ones, should we not draw the conclusion that we are spectacularly attractive? Because, you will have noticed, on your globe, we are not exactly next door, but rather at the end of the migration circuits. You have to do it on purpose, want it very badly, to land here. These migrants perhaps know something about us, our quality of life, our social safety net, our freedoms, that we perhaps refuse to tell ourselves, between two – justified – tirades against our orange cones, our surgical waiting lists and our poorly air-conditioned schools.
In the jumble of advances and setbacks, of great deeds and failures, which constitutes the history of a people, could it be that we find in our story a common thread which attests that the Quebec nation is (cling on you) exceptional? I sense you are skeptical. I call my first witness: Charles de Gaulle. Did you know that, taking refuge in London after the German invasion, he believed that the French must, in this ordeal, the duration of which we did not know, display the same fierce endurance as the 60,000 French colonists abandoned in 1759 on the banks of the Saint Laurent ? We were his gold standard of resilience in adversity. He will return several times, speaking with admiration of the “unbelievable perseverance” of Quebecers.
I am not claiming that we are, at all times, exceptional. But consider that in 1960, young French-speaking 21-year-olds had less education than that of black Americans at the time, who were then victims of nameless racism. Then, faced with a rising target among all our neighbors, we raised our postsecondary graduation rate for 25-64 year olds higher (71%) than that of the Americans (50%) and higher than all the G7 countries. All. If you don’t find this exceptional, I can’t do anything for you.
If only we weren’t so stubborn and closed-minded, right? Well, what are you referring to? Our rate of bilingualism, the highest on the continent? The fact that members of minorities, including visible minorities, are more present in our job market than in Ontario, especially women, and that they are better paid than our neighbors? The fact that our National Assembly is exactly representative of the diversity of the population (12% visible minorities, 20% non-French speaking)?
Maybe, you might say, but we carry a heavy xenophobic past. Let’s see: while the Spanish and British colonists carried out the genocide of the Indigenous people, our ancestors were the only ones on the continent to negotiate and sign, in 1701, a “Great Peace” with 39 indigenous chiefs. In 1798, open-minded Montreal judges declared black slavery illegal in Quebec, 26 years before its disappearance in Upper Canada, 36 years before the rest of the British Empire and 65 years before black emancipation Americans. Then, in 1832, our Parliament, with a Patriotic majority (the ancestor of the Liberal Party of Quebec and the Parti Québécois), passed a law granting full citizenship to Jews, something the rest of the British Empire would not do for another 29 years. later.
Do you see a trend here? Would we not, in fact, be precursors? Have we not, before others, accepted homosexual difference, gay couples, the right to abortion, the right to end-of-life care? After a terrible period of dispossession of Aboriginal people, were we not the first, with René Lévesque in 1984, to recognize their existence as a nation, then to sign the first modern treaties — James Bay Convention, Peace of the Brave . Is it not true that, according to the 2016 census, in the English-speaking provinces, Indigenous people living on reserves and knowing their original language do not exceed 46%, while in Quebec, it is 80% ?
Let Monia Chokri talk about women. When she goes to France, she dares to declare to World : “I always have the impression of a trip into the past, of going back 30 years on certain subjects, in particular on violence against women, equality, tolerance, immigration. I love this country, but I find it violent. It’s very different in Quebec, where it is very frowned upon to behave like an autocrat, to not be kind, respectful to everyone. »
Imagine: until the 1960s, women were, here as elsewhere, second-class citizens, forced by priests to be dominated and fertile. This is why our secular revolt is intertwined with that of women, and so strongly anchored in us.
See, abroad, the good things Chokri says about Quebec. Denis Villeneuve explains to Americans how his Quebec experience colored his reading of Dune. Nézet-Séguin made 60 Minutes an invaluable tribute to the quality of life in Montreal. Everyone knows, from Milwaukee to the end of Zimbabwe, that Céline comes from a modest family in this bizarre French-speaking part of Canada, which produces exceptional people and talents.
Modesty is one of our great qualities. Maintained, perhaps, by an environment that is often openly hostile and accusatory towards us. We are content to be “no worse”. We don’t dare go any further. But what if putting Quebec in its place meant recognizing that this place is special? Not perfect, but historically admirable? In fact, exceptional? That would be crazy audacity. We could only afford it, I think, once a year. On National Day.