On November 22 Prime Minister Stephen
Harper introduced a motion to the House of Commons: “That this
house recognize that the Quebecois form a nation within a united Canada.”According to Indian Affairs Minister Jim
Prentice the motion was presented by the Conservative government in order to
preempt and undermine a Bloc Quebecois motion seeking official recognition of Quebec as a nation.
Prentice claimed that the Bloc motion was an attempt to divide Canadians, while
the Conservative motion was a unifying motion, presumably because it refers to
a “united Canada”.
Prentice went on to clarify that the Conservative motion does not recognize the
province of Quebec as a nation, but rather only the
Quebecois, that is French-speaking Quebeckers. Harper also emphasized that: “Our
position is clear: do the Quebecois form a nation within Canada? The
answer is 'Yes'. Do the Quebecois form an independent nation? The answer is
'No', and the answer will always be 'No'".
Since the basic right of every nation
is the right to self-determination, it is clear from the statements of Harper
and Prentice that the Conservatives do not actually recognize any entity in Quebec as a nation. They
are merely dragging out the old Liberal concept of “distinct society” and
giving it a new name. However, in doing so they have gone further than even the
Liberals in their attempts to divide the Quebec
nation by stripping the concept of nation of territoriality and reducing it to
a linguistic or ethnic entity. Others, such as Liberal leadership candidate
Stephane Dion, do the same by talking about Quebec as a “sociological nation” as opposed
to a “legal nation”. In the name of “unity” they are attempting to further divide
the nation of Quebec
and in the name of “clarity” they are attempting to obscure the modern concept
of a nation.
A nation is a nation by virtue of a
people sharing a common territory, language, economy, history and psychology. A
nation may or may not have its own state and constitute itself as a country,
just as a nation may or may not be independent. However, the existence of a
nation is a historical fact which lives in the hearts and minds of its people,
whether or not it is recognized as a nation by other nations or states.
In every sense, Quebec is a nation. The Quebecois constitute
the majority population within the nation of Quebec,
but the Quebecois are not synonymous with the nation of Quebec,
which also includes the people of Quebec
of various other ethnic backgrounds. The concept of a nation being synonymous
with a specific ethnic group is actually an anti-national, tribal and medieval
concept which aims to divide people rather than unite them. Therefore, far from
representing a concession to the Quebecois, Harper’s “recognition” of the
Quebecois as a nation is an attack on the nation of Quebec and, hence, on the Quebecois as well.
It is not surprising that the Liberals
and the NDP have declared their intentions to vote for the Harper motion.
Neither party has ever recognized the nation of Quebec or its right to self-determination
and both parties fully understand the anti-Quebec nature of the motion, despite
what they may say to the contrary. It is surprising, however, that the Bloc
Quebecois, after initially denouncing the Conservative motion, has now declared
that it, too, will vote for it. This is an indication that the Bloc, just as
the Conservatives, Liberals and NDP, is more interested in its own fortunes in
the next federal election that it is in defending principled positions and the
interests of the nation and people of Quebec.