Path: utzoo!telly!moore!ziebmef!ncrcan!lsuc!attcan!utgpu!watmath!ubc-cs!faculty.cs.ubc.ca!manis
From: manis@faculty.cs.ubc.ca (Vincent Manis)
Newsgroups: can.general
Subject: Re: Canada: one or two cultures?
Message-ID: <4558@ubc-cs.UUCP>
Date: 26 Jul 89 19:57:51 GMT
References: <615662921.9256@myrias.uucp> <568@UALTAVM.BITNET> <604@philmtl.philips.ca> <89Jul19.104948edt.18727@me.utoronto.ca> <609@philmtl.philips.ca> <1989Jul24.085326.28706@jarvis.csri.toronto.edu> <27944@watmath.waterloo.edu> <625@philmtl.philips.ca>
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Reply-To: manis@faculty.cs.ubc.ca (Vincent Manis)
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Organization: The Invisible City of Kitezh
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In article <625@philmtl.philips.ca> tremblay@philmtl.philips.ca (Michel
Tremblay) writes:

>>  However, having said all this, Quebec culture produces an awful lot of
>>obnoxious bastards at the moment, doesn't it :-?
>>
>>Ross W. Wetmore                 | rwwetmore@water.NetNorth
>
>Is this perception shared by most English(speaking)Canadians on the net? 
>I am curious about that. 

I wouldn't have used Ross' phrasing, but certainly in Western Canada,
there isn't a lot of sympathy for the current Quebec position.

Consider my own opinions: I have long since been a believer in peoples'
rights for self-determination. Further, I have long championed changing
the Anglophone domination of Quebec. I have supported bilingualism for
many years (ever since the Bi-Bi Commission), thinking, mistakenly, that
what the Quebecois wanted was a chance to participate fully in the
affairs of Canada. 

As recently as a year ago, I posted to can.politics an article saying
that I supported the principle of Quebec being a `distinct society', on
the grounds that there are certainly many historical traditions (such as
civil law) which are specific to Quebec. I had the mistaken idea that if
those of us in the rest of Quebec extended the hand of goodwill, Quebec
would reciprocate. 

The Bill 101 ruling, and the consequent National Assembly ruling,
changed my beliefs. Apparently, it is not sufficient to require that
French be given primacy. One must further debarraser les Anglos, by
removing any trace of their presence from public view. All I could think
of was the Nuernberg Laws in Nazi Germany, eliminating from public view
the existence of German Jews. (I explicitly repudiate any comparison
between the democratically elected government of Quebec and the fascist
government of the Third Reich. The flavour is, however, the same). Not
only the Anglos are affected, though: Cree, Mohawk, Inuit, and other
aboriginal peoples have effectively been told to assimilate into the
Francophone society of Quebec. 

The result is that I no longer feel at home in Quebec. This is a society
which considers people such as myself (bilingual, but far more competent
in English than French) to be foreigners, and which can persecute a
small business for posting a sign saying `Ouvert tous les lundis/Open
Mondays'. My vision of Canada is a bi-/multi-lingual one: we draw
strength from our various cultures. The fact that Quebec seems to wish
to be a monolithic society fills me with regret. The fact that
francophone Quebecois media speak only of events in Quebec causes me to
wonder whether francophones have any interest in the vision of Canada as
a country built on many nations. The possibility that Quebecois consider
they have more in common with Miami than with Toronto saddens me. 






____________  Vincent Manis                    | manis@cs.ubc.ca
___ \  _____  The Invisible City of Kitezh     | manis@cs.ubc.cdn
____ \  ____  Department of Computer Science   | manis%cs.ubc@relay.cs.net
___  /\  ___  University of British Columbia   | uunet!ubc-cs!manis
__  /  \  __  Vancouver, BC, Canada V6T 1W5    | (604) 228-2394
_  / __ \  _  "There is no law that vulgarity and literary excellence cannot
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