When June 24 arrives, Quebecers, uninhibited for a day, do not hesitate to take the fleurdelisé out of the mothballs to let it float in the wind in the places of festivities in order to celebrate their national holiday. For this occasion, like a huge snub to history, some even dare to brandish it high on the plains of Abraham, the site of a battle that is, to say the least, symbolic…
On the other hand, once the festivities are over, everyone puts their flag away in a dark corner of their apartment, whispering to it “see you next time”, as René Lévesque did to the activists gathered at the Paul-Sauvé center on May 20, 1980 after the heartbreaking referendum defeat.
It must be said: Quebecers maintain an ambivalent and complicated relationship with the symbols that mark their history and mark their identity. Recently, Pascal Bérubé, of the Parti Québécois, proposed giving more visibility to the Quebec flag in historical and memorial sites, Quebec and federal institutions as well as in our schools. While for some this was self-evident, others saw it as a useless, ridiculous, inappropriate, retrograde proposition, even a provocative gesture or even the expression of a form of narrow-minded, even ethnic, nationalism.
In the hours following this proposal, I even saw on social media an altered image of the Quebec flag with, in its center, the swastika of the Nazi regime. Needless to say, the Quebec bashinga war machine that uses humiliation and denigration to discourage any desire for emancipation of the Quebec people, does not let one pass!
Would it occur to us to make fun of the Americans, the French, the Greeks and all the peoples of the Earth because they proudly display their flag, not only on their national holiday, but throughout the world? ‘year ? No way ! Why do many, even among Quebecers, not hesitate to do so when it comes to our flag and our symbols?
It is perhaps because all these denigrators have deeply internalized the idea that Quebec did not really form a people, but rather a simple “ethnic group”, as Pierre Elliott Trudeau asserted in 1961. For these people, Quebec is still and forever a society frozen in time, closed in on itself; a sort of tightly knitted pure wool tribe of origin… In fact, these people persist in not recognizing that Quebec experienced its Quiet Revolution, entered modernity at high speed, is now made up of several cultural communities of all origins and, above all, have formed a people who are welcoming and open to the world for generations.
But nothing works. Quebec can welcome a very large number of refugees and asylum seekers, French-speaking Quebecers continue to be portrayed as xenophobes and people who are “against immigration” by part of English Canada and even by some Quebecois; talk to Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, from Québec solidaire…
That thousands of new arrivals of Chinese, Portuguese, Italian, Haitian, Vietnamese, Spanish origin, and so on, have chosen Quebec as a welcoming land, that they have settled there and integrated, that they are appreciated by their fellow citizens and that all these people manage to live in peace, to flourish and to be happy in Quebec does not seem to weigh at all in the balance of those who persist in describing Quebecers as a community which practices systemic racism.
Originally from Chicoutimi, I come from a family of seven children. As if that wasn’t enough, my mother, just to make ends meet, welcomed for years many boarders who came to Saguenay to learn French. People from Rwanda, Chile, Vietnam, Lebanon, Mexico — and even the “West Island”! — thus found themselves around the table to share meals with us. Since the immersion was total, they had no choice but to use French to communicate and make themselves understood; and even so that we pass them the butter!
And we, curious, did not hesitate to question them about their country of origin and their customs, sometimes to their great despair given the limits of this brand new language that they were trying to tame. My mother, who had never left Quebec, told us that it was her way of traveling and discovering the world. No doubt all these encounters also encouraged me, as an adult, to visit many countries.
I know very well that we cannot draw a rule from this personal story, but it is perhaps in part this experience which explains the annoyance or even the exasperation that I feel when I have heard for decades that Quebecers are intolerant, withdrawn and xenophobic.
However, no blood test is required to become a Quebecer. You just need to live in the territory, respect the language and history of a people with an original destiny, share with them a certain number of fundamental values and have the taste to participate in a major collective project. Thus, when Quebecers watch, listen to or read Kim Thúy or Boucar Diouf, to give just these examples, they absolutely do not have the feeling of finding themselves in front of foreigners or immigrants, but in front of Quebecers whom they admire. and whom they love for their talents and their great humanity, but also because they feel in return respected by these exceptional beings.
Happy Quebec National Day to all those who call themselves and feel Quebecois or who aspire to become one!