Vigile.net - William Johnson

The Pied Piper of Quebec

William Johnson - The Globe and Mail — 2009-11-19T15:32:59Z

The Supreme Court must face facts : French is thriving in Quebec

William Johnson - The Globe and Mail — 2009-10-23T11:31:00Z

Once again, part of Quebec's language law has been found to be unconstitutional and a violation of the Charter rights of Canadians. The legislation struck down unanimously yesterday by the Supreme Court of Canada had been passed unanimously in 2002 with the support of both the Parti Québécois government and Jean Charest's Liberal (...) - consulter en ligne

Falardeau's myths

William Johnson - The Gazette (Montreal) — 2009-10-09T16:18:00Z

But Falardeau struck a chord that rings deep in the Québécois establishment : The anglophobia that underlies separatism and is expressed in the poem (and film) "Speak White," probably the most recited and anthologized in the entire Quebec corpus, constantly evoked, and never denounced for the racist forgery that it (...) - consulter en ligne

What if Montcalm had won ?

William Johnson - The Globe and Mail — 2009-09-08T11:25:00Z

What if, 250 years ago, the Marquis de Montcalm had defeated James Wolfe on the Plains of Abraham ? Would French-speakers today be more numerous on this continent, more socially and culturally developed, more prosperous and secure ? Would the Québécois be happier ? That assumption has been cherished by generations of nationalist weepers. (...) - consulter en ligne

Where does the 'true patriot' really stand on national unity ?

William Johnson - The Globe and Mail — 2009-04-30T12:35:00Z

But, in his current book, True Patriot Love, where he explores patriotism as the enduring family preoccupation of (according to the subtitle) "four generations in search of Canada," he, the spokesman for the fourth generation, remains strangely elusive. - consulter en ligne

Sarkozy ? Or Marois, Duceppe and Charest ?

William Johnson - The Globe and Mail — 2009-02-11T15:26:00Z

Pit Bill a la gâchette rapide, il confond Sarko et LA FRANCE... Tout est clair, le moment venu, LA FRANCE reconnaîtra l'indépendance du Québec... quoiqu'en dise aujourd'hui le petit Sarko. Now, at last, there's no ambiguity. On Feb. 2, French President Nicolas Sarkozy removed the last illusion that sustained (...) - consulter en ligne

Why the kingmaker can't stop laughing

William Johnson - The Globe and Mail — 2008-12-04T17:38:00Z

There is a Quebec political syndrome. It inspired the decision of Stéphane Dion, Jack Layton and Gilles Duceppe to seize power, dumping the Conservatives. Is it coincidence that all three are from Quebec ? Even Mr. Layton was born and bred there, graduating from McGill University. His father was a Quebec MP in the Mulroney government. The (...) - consulter en ligne

The rise and fall of the Harper majority

William Johnson - The Globe and Mail — 2008-10-10T14:40:59Z

In Quebec, the debate has been far more virulent. There, the cuts in cultural grants have been presented as an attack on the province's very identity. The incredibly effective campaign has been symbolized by a spoof video in which popular songwriter Michel Rivard is turned down (...) Anglophobic, anti-Canadian, untrue. It has supplanted (...) - consulter en ligne

National unity, then and now

William Johnson - The Globe and Mail — 2008-09-08T12:53:00Z

Still speaking with forked tongues

William Johnson - The Globe and Mail — 2008-08-21T14:30:32Z

The court rejected the pretension by Quebec's politicians that the province had the unconditional right to secede with its current territory intact if it won the merest majority on a referendum question chosen by Quebec alone. - consulter en ligne

Toujours la France, toujours de Gaulle

William Johnson - The Globe and Mail — 2008-07-07T13:03:59Z

Why Fête Nationale is really Fête Nationaliste

William Johnson - The Globe and Mail — 2008-06-26T16:48:00Z

Quebec invests millions in celebrating its Fête Nationale and, in nearly every part of the province, its organization is put in the hands of separatists. - consulter en ligne

D'une Mata Hari à l'autre

William Johnson - www.cyberpresse.ca — 2008-05-28T11:48:00Z

Pierre Sévigny a entretenu une liaison avec Gerda Munsinger de 1959 à 1961, alors qu'il était ministre associé de la Défense nationale dans le gouvernement conservateur de John Diefenbaker. Originaire de l'Allemagne de l'Est, Mme Munsinger était décrite comme une prostituée, voleuse et espionne à ses heures... (Archives PC) (...) - consulter en ligne

Vive le Canada !

William Johnson - The Globe and Mail — 2008-04-08T16:26:00Z

Quebec group has sold out the anglos it claims to represent

William Johnson - The Gazette (Montreal) — 2007-12-19T12:51:00Z

Mr RULE OF LAW... What a gutless, visionless brief. The Quebec Community Groups Network presumed to speak for Quebec's English-speaking community last Thursday before the Bouchard-Taylor Commission on accommodation practices. Its brief, titled Reasonable Accommodation Concerns of English-Speaking Quebecers, left this anglo thoroughly (...) - consulter en ligne

No Queen at the fête ? Good

William Johnson - The Globe and Mail — 2007-12-12T13:46:00Z

So the Queen will not be invited. Prime Minister Stephen Harper has decided that Quebec City will celebrate the 400th anniversary of its founding without Her Majesty. Right decision or wrong-headed slight ? La Presse broke the story on Sunday based on Access to Information documents. Joël-Denis Bellavance wrote : "Fearing polemics between (...) - consulter en ligne

Federalists in Quebec find their voice

William Johnson - The Globe and Mail — 2007-11-11T13:18:00Z

In Quebec, a commonly shared vision of our history was expressed by then-Bloc Québécois MP Suzanne Tremblay : "There are two founding peoples," she told the Commons. "We arrived here before you. You conquered us in 1760, you reconquered us in 1980 by the first referendum, and you reconquered in 1995 by the second referendum. But we will (...) - consulter en ligne

Quebec Liberals haunted by divisions over the nation question

William Johnson - The Gazette (Montreal) — 2007-10-09T15:36:44Z

"In Quebec, as often happens, politics are infiltrated by ideology" - W. Johnson, un idéologue canadian, ostensiblement drapé dans la "rule of law"... (Vigile) Stéphane Dion is under siege by the angry ghosts from his past. The insurrection against him by his party's Quebec wing means more than personality clashes or conflicting (...) - consulter en ligne

Why Quebec is spurning Dion : the compact myth

William Johnson - The Globe and Mail — 2007-09-25T12:18:14Z

No, it's not possible. Can the federal Liberals have plunged so low in their once impregnable Quebec fortress ? Some finger Stéphane Dion. Others smell poison lingering from the sponsorship scandal. But another factor, more fundamental, goes ignored : "the compact between the two founding peoples."

Brian Mulroney described it in his senior-college-year essay, according to his biographer, L. Ian MacDonald : "To the French, [Confederation] is a pact between French and English, which guarantees each group an equal right to its own faith, language, laws and customs." In fact, this compact theory is a myth. It was first enunciated in 1904 by nationalist icon Henri Bourassa ; its progression is traced by political scientist Stéphane Paquin in his 1999 book, L'invention d'un mythe : Le pacte entre deux peuples fondateurs.

Soon taken up by nationalist historian Lionel Groulx, this invention spread among historians, then politicians. By the 1950s, it was articulated as the foundational fact of Canada by a royal commission launched by Maurice Duplessis. It's been the doctrine of every Quebec premier since, turning into an axiom, a historic grievance and a vision for reconstructing Canada. And every premier's duty is to rewrite the Constitution to make Quebec as equal as possible to English Canada.

Jean Lesage : "Today's Quebec must possess and control ... the economic, social, administrative and political levers that will enable it to realize its legitimate aspirations as an adult people." Daniel Johnson Sr. threw down an ultimatum : "Égalité ou indépendence." Under Claude Ryan, the Quebec Liberal Party published its constitutional policy, Une nouvelle fédération canadienne : "This reform aims above all at inscribing in the fundamental law of Canada the principle of the equality of the two peoples that founded modern Canada."

That included the right to secede at will, the abolition of the Senate, the transfer of all residual powers to the provinces and the repeal of the federal power "to make laws for the peace, order and good government of Canada." Such was the constitutional policy on which Robert Bourassa's Liberals were elected in 1985.

But the platform cautioned : "The current context is not favourable to a comprehensive reform of Canadian federalism. And so we must adopt a pragmatic approach and proceed in stages." And so Mr. Bourassa put forward five conditions for recognizing that Quebec was bound by the 1982 Constitution Act. Meech Lake was only to set the stage for later, as Mr. Bourassa's justice minister signalled, "the Quebec government wanted to establish on a solid basis the foundations of a comprehensive constitutional reform to come in a second stage of negotiations."

The "two founding peoples" doctrine clashed with the political culture of Canada. And so a constant tug of war emerged as Quebeckers voted simultaneously for politicians in Ottawa and Quebec City who were at odds with each other. Mr. Duplessis fought with Louis St. Laurent, Lester Pearson with Mr. Lesage, Pierre Trudeau with Daniel Johnson Sr., with Mr. Bourassa and René Lévesque. And this paradox was an accepted part of Quebec's political culture. The political class pushed for two founding peoples, and ordinary Quebeckers kept voting Liberal federally.

Mr. Trudeau patriated the Constitution against the Péquiste majority in the National Assembly, but all remained quiet. Polls showed support for secession dropping between 1980 and 1987, the year of Meech Lake. But everything changed after Mr. Mulroney thundered against patriation - and so the Constitution - as leaving Quebec betrayed, humiliated, isolated. The magician's conjuring proved so effective that ordinary Quebeckers converted to his view that the federal Liberals were guilty of high lèse-Québec.

Eventually, Mr. Mulroney and his Conservatives were discredited across Canada. But, instead of turning back to the Liberals, Quebeckers drew the logical conclusion of Mr. Mulroney's revisionism and voted for the Bloc Québécois.

The rest of the country turned the page on the Mulroney era after Stephen Harper reunified the Canadian Alliance and the Progressive Conservatives. But, in Quebec, his influence lives on.

Quebeckers had accepted patriation, had accepted Mr. Trudeau's rejection of "two founding peoples," of special status, "distinct society," and his refusal in 1980 to be bound by the results of the referendum on sovereignty-association. But now, thanks to Mr. Mulroney, the Liberals are distrusted in Quebec, and Stéphane Dion is spurned for his Plan B and the Clarity Act.

Quebec will fit uneasily in the federation so long as it is governed by the myth of the two founding peoples.

***

WILLIAM JOHNSON
Author and a former president of Alliance Quebec

It's back to the 'nous' in Parti Québécois land

William Johnson - The Globe and Mail — 2007-09-04T14:09:00Z

There is a new political dynamic at work in Quebec. Parti Québécois Leader Pauline Marois demonstrated it last week at her nomination meeting for the Sept. 24 by-election in Charlevoix. In her speech, she never once mentioned Premier Jean Charest. But she did train her artillery on Mario Dumont, leader of the Official Opposition. That (...) - consulter en ligne

English-speaking Quebecers must wake up and defend their rights

William Johnson - The Gazette (Montreal) — 2007-08-31T13:56:00Z

Nine days ago, the Quebec Court of Appeal recognized that Quebec was systematically violating the constitutionally protected right to be educated in English of children who had already been instructed in English. This violation of rights had been in effect since Bill 104 was passed in 2002, restricting a right to English schooling guaranteed (...) - consulter en ligne

Can Pauline Marois change the PQ's spots ?

William Johnson - The Globe and Mail — 2007-07-03T13:52:17Z

Can the Parti Québécois change its spots ? Can its newly crowned leader, Pauline Marois, deliver on her promise to "modernize" the party's fundamental tenets, presently consecrated in its revered program ? Ms. Marois was acclaimed last Wednesday as the PQ's seventh leader when no one else submitted a valid candidacy. From the time (...) - consulter en ligne

Separatists' false premise of the 'love-in' furor

William Johnson - The Gazette (Montreal) — 2007-06-04T15:44:51Z

Who paid for the 1995 "love-in ?" That is now the question shouted. All last week, nationalists were calling for a new inquiry into federalist spending for the 1995 referendum campaign on secession. No sooner had commissioner Bernard Grenier unveiled Tuesday his long-delayed - but anti-climactic - conclusions on Option Canada, than the (...) - consulter en ligne

The PQ has a 'new' strategy. Why do we put up with this ?

William Johnson - The Gazette (Montreal) — 2007-05-24T16:00:00Z

Here we go again. The Parti Quebecois has embarked on a "new" strategy to achieve the secession of Quebec. But is it really new ? More important, is it tolerable ? According to the media, the big news in Quebec's sovereignty movement - apart from Gilles Duceppe's "error" and Pauline Marois's likely coronation - is that the PQ (...) - consulter en ligne

Another leader denied the promised land

William Johnson - The Globe and Mail — 2007-05-09T14:42:39Z

When André Boisclair sprang his surprise by resigning as Parti Québécois leader, there was a telling moment. He chose to end his speech on an uplifting message : "I'd like to conclude on a note of hope for those millions of Québécois . . ." But there he choked up. For 30 long seconds, he fought for control while the audience waited, (...) - consulter en ligne