Tuesday night, in the most unexpected way, the historian Frédéric Bastien was struck down by a heart attack. He was 53 years old. He was in good shape. He was a sportsman, a good level cyclist.
And suddenly, the reaper passed.
He had a wife, three children, and many friends who admired and cared about him. They are struggling this morning to believe what happened to him.
I write about him knowing he’s gone, and yet I can’t quite believe he won’t be with us anymore.
Historian
Frederick was a historian. Over the years, he had published some major works, which caused a stir and turned our public life upside down.
I mention two.
In Special relationshipspublished in 1999, it showed how our national question had structured part of French political life in the decades following the Long live the free quebec of General de Gaulle, in July 1967.
But he especially struck the consciences in 2013, with The Battle of Londonwhere he demonstrated that the patriation of the constitution in 1982 was the result of an unnamed coup, the Supreme Court having exceeded its role to make Pierre Trudeau’s project possible.
Frédéric Bastien, authentic historian, was in this a true intellectual.
But Frédéric was not just a historian.
He was also a determined nationalist activist.
He was very young for the independence of Quebec, and this commitment has always been at the heart of his life. In recent years, it had taken up even more space.
Frédéric had decided to make the leap into politics, even to the point of running for the leadership of the PQ in 2020. He thought he was there.
But even more, he was fully committed to public life, as an intellectual, as I said, but also as a columnist, and even, in his own way, as an activist, in the best sense of the term.
Radically opposed to multiculturalism, to the Woke ideology and to all those whims that lead to the deconstruction of the West, he pleaded for a robust secularism and a real control of immigration.
He was also leading a courageous battle against Islamism in all its dimensions.
He was, to put it another way, an uninhibited nationalist who did not allow himself to be dictated to by ideological bullies and the fearful who submitted to them.
It was both in his convictions and his personality that Frédéric found a way to resist.
Combative
Combative and laughing, in a conversation, he made no false diplomatic concessions, but always remained cordial. He went to the end of his idea, convinced.
He was a man of quality, a faithful friend, a tireless activist, who was convinced that sooner than later, the people of Quebec would finally have their country, otherwise they would disappear.
The best way to honor him today is to continue his fight, without ever giving up or giving up.