Controversy over criticism of Quebec society

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Controversy over criticism of Quebec society refers to incidents in which controversy arose over criticism of Quebec society, government, or institutions, and in which the criticism was perceived as criticism of the whole of Quebec society, or a large part of it.

The term Quebec bashing is a term used^[1] to refer to what is perceived and depicted by Quebec nationalists as defamatory anti-Quebec coverage, in the English-language media, of French-Canadians and French-Canadian society inside Quebec.^{[citation needed]} The term is most widely used within Quebec, especially in the French-language media where an English-language phrase has been adopted.^{[citation needed]} Examples are found in the English-language media, but occasionally in coverage from other countries, often based on Canadian sources.^[2] These examples can range from hostile racism to minor slights or legitimate criticism.

There is a perception among the French language media in Quebec that an unfavourable depiction of Quebec by the media became especially prevalent in the years following the 1995 Quebec referendum on Quebec independence,^[3][4] although there is no study or statistical evidence provided to back this assertion.

The scope or the level at which it represents an opinion held in English Canada is challenged by moderate federalist elements in the French-speaking media, has been debated^[5]; the majority of examples given below are from marginal figures in English Canada, and have received far more notice within French Canadian society than without.

[edit] Themes

One themes of criticism of Quebec is the attribution to Québécois of racism and of discrimination against Anglo-Quebecers, aboriginals and minorities. The expression "pure laine" ("pure wool"), used to denote old-stock Quebecers, has often been cited as a manifestation of discriminatory atitudes.^{[citation needed]} It has been portrayed as a common contemporary way of seeing race in Quebec, while counter-critics deem the term obsolete.^[6][7]

Another common criticism is the accusation of unusually high levels of anti-Semitism in French Quebec, both in the past and today. Historian Lionel Groulx, the newspaper Le Devoir and fascist Adrien Arcand are frequently cited as evidence of this, as are various opinion polls concerning anti-semitic attitudes in the general population. It has been argued that a significant portion of the population in the era before and during the Second World War, particularly members of the intelligentsia, were sympathetic to fascist regimes in Portugal and Italy, in part due to the stated goal of these regimes to restore Catholic religion and values to a place in the political sphere. Parallels are drawn between fascist, racist and anti-democratic regimes, especially National Socialism, and French Quebec society, its government and its nationalist leaders.^[4]

Controversy has arisen over attempts to criticize, or to discredit and denigrate, members of the Quebecois political elite. Among pro-independence leaders, while René Lévesque has sometimes been spared (but not always, notably not by Mordecai Richler, who expressed guarded admiration for the man but also strongly criticized him), Lucien Bouchard and Jacques Parizeau are strongly calumnied. Some writers have described members of this elite as criminals^[8] and compared to people such as Pol Pot^[9] or the Devil.^[10][11] The administration of the Government of Quebec itself has been described as corrupt, sometimes with the derogatory term of "banana republic".^[12] They have portrayed the Quebec nationalist and independence movements, and the Charter of the French Language (Bill 101) in a highly unfavourable light. The body that enforces the Charter, the Office québécois de la langue française (OQLF), has often been called the "language police" and been criticized for allegedly oppressing English-speaking minorities. The public servants of the OQLF have sometimes been compared to the Gestapo or "brown shirts" ^[13][1], although these claims are generally recognized as exaggerations (in fact, many regions of the world have language-protection laws, including many American states [1]). According to a Léger Marketing survey (jan. 2007), 86% of Quebecers of ethnic origins have a good opinion of the French-speaking majority [2], so one could consider that the term "oppression" and the comparison to "Gestapo" do not necessarily reflect the opinion of minority groups, but perhaps an anti-Quebecois feeling from those who coined these comparisons.

Some apparently unrelated topics have been linked to the nationalist and independence movements and the language laws, such as the departure of the Expos baseball club from Montreal,^[14] and suicide rates in Quebec^[15][16].

Some criticism of Quebec society has emphasized the supposed superiority of English-Canadian or Anglo-Saxon conceptions of democracy, individual liberty and multiculturalism, as well as the English Canadian tolerance of dissent (sometimes stigmatized as "treason"), claiming that "only in Canada" could such things be tolerated. Barbara Amiel has written in Maclean's: "Of course, [Bill 101] was approved by the Liberals of Quebec and illustrates another fact, which is that francophone culture itself is not as intrinsically democratic as cultures based on British traditions."^[17] Because of these supposedly higher British morals and principles, Quebec has been portrayed as prevented from sliding into a more somber state only by its association with Canada and its leaders.^[18]

[edit] Examples

Allegations of Quebec-bashing have been made not only against English-Canadian publications but against publications from around the world, often respected publications that take their sources in English-speaking Canada.^{[citation needed]} Within Canada, people such as former radio personality Howard Galganov and journalist Diane Francis^[19] have gained a reputation for anti-Quebec depictions. Author Mordecai Richler wrote a number of articles, published in the United States and Great Britain, which many Québécois considered offensive. From outside the English-speaking world, three articles harshly critical of Quebec were published in German newspapers during the 1990s: "A Quebec as antisemite as 50 years ago" in the Süddeutsche Zeitung, "Empty shop windows, barricaded doors and hate graffitis" in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and "Hello Montreal, and goodbye forever!" in Die Welt, three of the largest largest newspapers in Germany.^[20]

Unfavourable depictions of Quebec have also been provided by books such as Bilingual Today, French Tomorrow, as well as political cartoons.^[21] Other examples of Quebec bashing are found in pop culture. Don Cherry, a sports commentator on the CBC, has occasionally been accused of Quebec bashing. A couple of American comedians^{[attribution needed]} have sometimes been accused of Quebec bashing, although they appear to have confused Quebec with France.^{[citation needed]} In 2006, articles labeled as "Quebec bashing" sparked notorious controversies: Barbara Kay's August 9 "The rise of Quebecistan" in The National Post^[18] and Jan Wong's September 16 "Get under the desk" in The Globe and Mail.^[22] The Globe and Mail and The National Post are Canada's two national newspapers and both are Toronto-based publications.

[edit] Robert Guy Scully

On Sunday, April 17, 1977, five months after the first accession of the Parti Québécois to power under René Lévesque, journalist Robert Guy Scully wrote an article in the "Outlook" section of The Washington Post called "What It Means To Be French In Canada".^[12] Page A2 of the paper summarized the article: "French Quebec is a culturally deprived, insecure community whose existence is an accident of history, one which shouldn't have happened, says a French-Canadian writer. Page C1."^[23] Two columns of the front page of the section and an entire inside page were devoted to the article. In it, Scully called the French Quebecois society incurably "sick". "No one would want to live there who doesn't have to," he wrote. "There isn't a single material or spiritual advantage to it which can't be had, in an even better form, on the English side of Montreal."

He claimed that in Montreal's Hochelaga-Maisonneuve district, which he called one of the "Harlems" of French Montreal, "[...] the people are afraid to see a doctor, or to even call one. They might try the left-over pills from the neighbor's old prescription. But they would be terrified of stepping out of their dark, greasy kitchens into bright, clean hospitals. [...] Some of the mothers will even keep their youngest at home, afraid of losing the last one to the world outside. So this child will grow illiterate, and the grown-ups will be afraid to answer the phone, in case the school board calls."

The article said that "the Quebec civil service, in many instances, [is] a corrupt banana-republic bureaucracy" and that the people of Quebec were urged "never to buy Heinz ketchup or other such 'foreign' products." Scully considered the vitality of 1970s Quebec society to be the fruit of an "extraordinary neurotic creativity" but also contended that it "means nothing." He summarized his opinion in these few words: "Quebec is small and isolated. That will never change: a cripple could no more grow his legs back."

This article was featured in Jean-François Lisée's In the Eye of the Eagle, an extensive study of American interest in Quebec and its independence movement. In the chapter "A Voiceless Quebec", Lisée advances the view that if such prominence was given to such "singular and unrepresentative a view of Quebec society", it was partly caused by "the perfect absence of a Quebec voice in North America's news services, and the frightening degree of ignorance in the American press on the subject of Quebec." Lisée points out that these ideas were also presented by the Editor-in-Chief of the section, Al Horne, in a speech at a Washington symposium.^[12]

[edit] Esther Delisle

Esther Delisle, a French-Canadian PhD student at Université Laval wrote a thesis that discussed the "fascist" and anti-semitic ideals of Lionel Groulx, an important figure in the history of French-Canadian nationalism. Quebec Premier, Jacques Parizeau, and numerous other commentators, labelled the book as "Quebec bashing"^[24], although her thesis received more sympathetic treatment from other Quebec journalists.^[25] Delisle's thesis expressed the opinion that the objectionable views of Groulx and other Quebec intellectuals in the nineteen-thirties and forties were not necessarily shared by the general French-Canadian population at that time.

[edit] Mordecai Richler

Main article: Mordecai Richler#Controversy

Well-known Quebec author Mordecai Richler made numerous assertions decrying what he perceived as racism, tribalism, provincialism, and anti-semitism in French-speaking Quebec, notably in a 1991 article in The New Yorker and his 1992 book Oh Canada! Oh Quebec!, but also in various other articles and interviews. His negative portrayal of Quebec got international coverage in the United States and Great Britain, where the voice given to French-speaking Quebecers was considerably less than that of English Canadians.^[12] His views were strongly criticized in Quebec and to some degree among anglophone Canadians.^[26]

He notably linked Quebec nationalism to Nazism and caused harm to the reputation of René Lévesque in the United States.^[27] Richler was also critical of fellow Jews, Zionists, English Canadian nationalists and intellectuals, Israel^[28] and in fact nationalists of any sort.^{[citation needed]} He was also prone to hyperbole and negativity in all his commentary, and was known as something of "curmudgeon" in literary circles.^[29] Some commentators, inside and outside Quebec, think that the reaction to Richler was excessive, and sometimes bordered on the racist itself. ^[30] Other Quebecers acclaimed Richler for his courage and for attacking the orthodoxies of Quebec society,^[30] and he has been described as "the most prominent defender of the rights of Quebec's anglophones."^[31]

[edit] Don Cherry

Don Cherry, a longtime commentator on Hockey Night in Canada has made a few comments interpreted by many as Quebec bashing. For example, in 1993 he said the anglo residents of Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario "speak the good language"; during the 1998 Winter Olympic Games he called Quebec sovereigntists "whiners", after Bloc MPs had complained there were too many Canadian flags in the Olympic village, he went on to say that Jean-Luc Brassard shouldn't be the flag bearer because he was "a French guy, some skier that nobody knows about"; in 2003, after fans in Montreal booed the American national anthem he went on an American talk show and said "true Canadians do not feel the way they do in Quebec there"; in 2004 while criticizing visors he said, "most of the guys that wear them are Europeans or French guys ..."

Politicians of all sorts, French advocacy groups, and media commentators from across Canada criticized Cherry and CBC Television on numerous occasions after these statements. In 2004 the CBC put Cherry's segment, Coach's Corner on a 7 second tape delay to avoid future incidents. Don Cherry has also made controversial comments about many topics, including repeated criticism of different ethnic groups and European hockey players as well as allegedly sexist comments. He has also praised numerous French-speaking Quebec hockey players for their play.^[32][33][34]

[edit] Richard Lafferty

In a 1993 financial analysis bulletin sent to 275 people, broker Richard Lafferty compared the then leader of the Bloc Québécois, Lucien Bouchard, and the then leader of the Parti Québécois, Jacques Parizeau, to Adolf Hitler, and their tactics and his tactics. Parizeau was said to have been especially affected, being the widower of Polish author Alice Poznanska, who saw the horrors of the Third Reich first hand.^[35] The two politicians sued Lafferty for defamation, demanding $150,000 in reparation.

In March 2000, Lafferty was found guilty by the Superior Court of Quebec and sentenced to give $20,000 to both men (also reported as $40,000). Lafferty appealed, but died in 2003. In October 2004 the Superior Court of Quebec maintained the guilty verdict but raised the amount to $200,000 (also reported as $100,000). In 2005, before the case was heard by the Supreme Court of Canada, the politicians and Richard Lafferty's estate reached an out-of-court agreement. As commonly seen in such cases, the details of the agreement remained confidential. As they promised at the beginning of the proceedings, Bouchard and Parizeau donated the money to charity.^[36]

[edit] Diane Francis

Claiming that Canada is "at war",^[13] National Post editor and former Financial Post director Diane Francis has a history of publishing fiery attacks which have been denounced as Quebec defamation. She virulently attacks Quebec, its protective language laws and its nationalist movement. For example, she wrote in an editorial on April 11, 2000: "The rednecks who run the Parti Quebecois have escalated the harassment of immigrants in business for using too much English. It's no coincidence that the government is displaying such overt intolerance as it heads for the Parti's annual convention next month. This is brown shirts a la Quebec who hope to fan fears about the future of the pur laine Super Race.", then calling the English language in Quebec "besieged" and then-Parti Québécois administration a "government comprised of language bigots". In addition to such references to National Socialism and stormtroopers, she also uses the terms "pure laine" and "language police", as other examples claimed to be "Quebec bashing" have done.^[13] When Quebecor bought Sun Media, Francis asserted that "separatists" should not have the right to own newspapers. Quebecor was founded by Pierre Péladeau, who was a sovereigntist, but the company leadership had been given to his son Pierre Karl, who has not made his political inclinations public.^[37]

Using herself a strong patriotic (and therefore^{[citation needed]} nationalist) tone, she wrote the book Fighting for Canada; the summary on her official website says that Francis has "pledged to become Lucien Bouchard's worst nightmare". It adds: "Outraged by the ruthlessness, lying, racism, and manipulation that she believed lay at the heart of the separatist campaign, Francis decided to dig a little deeper. What she discovered shocked even her, a seasoned journalist. Separatism, she asserts, is not a political movement, but a criminal conspiracy that has run rough shod over human rights, fair play, and democracy in an illegal attempt to destroy Canada." It continues, stating: "Worse yet, the separatists' not-always-unwitting accomplices range from mainstream federalist politicians to lazy and biased members of the media. [...] Through a combination of thuggery, sheer stupidity, and unrelenting ambition, these forces have conspired to capitalize on the separatist movement and the intense feelings it engenders. [...] There's a war on, she declares, and Canada is worth fighting for."^[8] Francis indeed developped a notable antagonism for former Premier Lucien Bouchard. On October 14, 1995, during the 1995 Quebec referendum campaign, she wrote: "Bouchard must go. The man is a menace, a demagogue and, possibly, a criminal."^[38]

On May 21, 1996, a group of about a hundred Anglo-Quebecers, Forum Québec, filed a complaint with the Press Council of Ontario about Diane Francis.^[39] In November 2000, another complaint against Francis was validated by the Quebec Press Council. Commenting on the examples brought to the body, it declared: "They are [...] unacceptable abuses of language that should not be tolarated in the pages of a great national daily publication. [...T]he Quebec Press Council can only validate the complaint".^[40] Maryse Potvin, a sociologist and specialist in race-related issues, argued, in a study of anti-Quebec depictions in the media, that the foundations and tone of Francis' writings against Quebecers were similar, in many regards, to the anti-semite discourse of the 1930s and 1940s: the idea of a conspiracy unrecognized by the population, one that is led by sovereigntists that "lie", that cheat, that infiltrate the Canadian Army.^[10]

[edit] Lawrence Martin

In 1997 Lawrence Martin published The Antagonist: Lucien Bouchard and the Politics of Delusion. In it he painted a speculative psychological portrait of Lucien Bouchard, then premier of Quebec. Bouchard was described as "mystical", and his culture as "most uncanadian".^[10] Martin based his book on the psychological analysis, itself disputed, of Bouchard made by Dr. Vivian Rakoff. Rakoff never met the subject of his "analysis". Martin's book called Bouchard "Lucien, Lucifer of our land"^[10]; this was repeated by Lawrence Martin in 1997, on the pages of The Globe and Mail.^[11] Maryse Potvin, a sociologist who specializes in racism-related issues, asserted in a study of anti-Quebec media representation that this type of demonization is a known and documented process of racism.^[10] Although this statement does not logically imply that Martin's book was necessarily racist, the book was at the very least subjective and unsubstantiated.

[edit] City of Westmount

While trying to prevent the Westmount, Quebec from being amalgamated into greater Montreal, Westmount Mayor Peter Trent and city council asserted that the city was a designated anglophone institution and should not be merged into francophone greater Montreal. In response to this opposition, Municipal Affairs Minister Louise Harel said that Westmount's resistance "reeked of colonialsm" and that the opposition was an "ethnic project", statements for which she would refuse to apologize.^[41] When asked for comment, Quebec Premier Bernard Landry said the minister had his full support and that the opposition was little more than Quebec bashing.^[42] Several public figures criticized Landry's statement: Jean Charest called it insulting to the intelligence of the citizens of Quebec; Joseph Gabary, president of the Quebec Chapter of the Canadian Jewish Congress, called the language "crude"; Alliance Quebec also criticized the premier for singling out the city for special criticism. ^[43]

[edit] Kristian Gravenor

In the Montreal Mirror of November 28, 2001, two months after September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the neighbouring United States, Kristian Gravenor compared the inspectors of the Office de la langue française (OLF, now known as the OQLF) to the Taliban Movement in the article "Tongue Taliban hits NDG".^[44] Gravenor claimed that the inspectors used tape to measure letters on sign, could give monetary penalties to the business owner, and could seize the properties of business owners. However, only the tribunal can decide monetary penalties and whether properties can be seized. The Quebec Press Council received a complaint on the subject. The Council did not retain the complaint but found the comparison to be inappropriate.^[45]

[edit] Barbara Kay

Main article: Barbara Kay controversy

On August 6, 2006, Parti Québécois (PQ) leader André Boisclair, Bloc Québécois (BQ) leader Gilles Duceppe, Québec solidaire (QS) spokesperson Amir Khadir and Liberal Party of Canada Member of Parliament (MP) Denis Coderre participated in a rally in support of Lebanon.^[46] The rally—that excluded Jewish participation^{[citation needed]}—was billed as being for "justice and peace," but instead was, according to Kay, "virulently anti-Israel," including the desecration of a Jewish prayer shawl, and called for a "cease-fire," and not peace.^[46] On the following August 9, 2006, Kay published "The rise of Quebecistan"^[18] in the broadsheet the National Post, lamenting that the politicians (three of whom, Boisclair, Duceppe and Khadir, are pro-independence) as having supported terrorism, Hezbollah, and antisemitism for votes from Canadians of convenience.

Kay later noted: "A more aggressive writer, novelist and polemicist Maurice Dantec, wrote an article for Egards, 'Bienvenue au Quebeckistan,' weeks before 'The Rise of Quebecistan' appeared in the Post. In it, he warns Quebec against becoming another 'Frankistan':

"When your cities are invaded by the same mobs as those who are burning 200 cars a day in France even as I speak, when Hezbollah militias, quite legally (ah, this Charter of Rights of the Bedouin and of the Liberties of the Terrorist!) are authorized to patrol [the streets] with your police forces, when your writers (if any remain) get assassinated in the street -- as in the Netherlands -- when ... the Cross on Mount Royal must be withdrawn from the view of decent Montreal Muslims so as not to 'shock' their sensibility, when Israel has disappeared in a huge festive movement uniting Communist scum with fascistoidal pseudo-nationalist cretins, capitulating dyed-in-the-wool liberals, sovereigntists without a sovereign, and the post-leftists feeding on Noam Chomsky's dog food or the animated cartoons of Michael Moore, then you will find yourself absolutely alone." (my translation)^[18]

Kay adjured: "Them's fighting words! You'll never see their like in the English press: We'd be terrified—and justifiably so, as who should know better than I—of the backlash."^[18]

Accusations of Quebec bashing against Kay, and others, were, it appears, manifestations of French Quebec's hatred of the English language; and a hypersensitivity to criticisms of persons not of French ethnicity.

To further buttress this assessment, Kay pointed to:

Maurice Dantec's new novel, Grande Jonction, a work of "metaphysical fiction," was featured at the recent Salon du Livre in Montreal. A self-described exile from France, where his right wing views are unpopular, Dantec is a controversial figure, a former leftist who converted to muscular Catholicism three years ago and now fulminates against the disastrous consequences of multiculturalism a la Mark Steyn (same courage and bold candour, but more truculence, less humour). In person he is scruffy, broody, intense; Dantec's brilliant prose kneads and pummels the same topics -- the moral decline of the West, the ineluctable spread of Islamofascism -- that preoccupy Steyn.^[18]

And concluded on the hysteria following her criticism of Quebec politicians participating in a rally with supporters of Hezbollah, that the Prime Minister of Canada has referred to as genocidal terrorists, in the following terms:

My disagreeable tenure as the cynosure of Quebec's media educated me. Messrs. Renaud and Dantec's savage indictments of Quebec's moral relativism excited approximately zero editorial reaction in the French press. That's because Renaud and Dantec worked within the code: Say anything you want about Quebec, as long as it's in French. I took flak because I broke the code.^[18]

[edit] Jan Wong

Main article: Jan Wong controversy

A shooting at Dawson College in Westmount, Quebec on September 13, 2006, resulted in the murder-suicide of a student in addition to several other injuries. Three days later, the national newspaper The Globe and Mail published on its front page an article by Jan Wong entitled "Get under the desk" ^[22]. In the article, all three school shooting tragedies of the last decades in Montreal, including the 1989 massacre at the École Polytechnique and the 1992 shootings at Concordia University, were linked with purported alienation brought upon by "the decades-long linguistic struggle". (In actual fact, Polytechnique shooter Marc Lépine cited his rage at feminists for his actions, and Concordia shooter Valery Fabrikant cited a career-related personal vendetta with some overtones of paranoia.) Wong also stated, falsely, that Quebec was the only Canadian province where a school shooting of this type had ever taken place.

Public outcry and political condemnation soon followed Wong's comments. The Premier of Quebec and the Prime Minister of Canada sent open letters of strong disapproval to the Globe and Mail and a unanimous motion denouncing the piece was passed by the Canadian House of Commons. Hundreds of complaints were received by the Globe, and many Quebec journalists condemned the article.

[edit] First Nations issues

In conflicts such as the Oka Crisis of 1990 or the controversial James Bay Hydroelectric Project, Quebec has sometimes^{[citation needed]} been portrayed by the media as having uniquely poor relations^{[citation needed]} with its First Nations population, a portrayal which has been taken by many as implying that conflicts between First Nations groups and federal, provincial or municipal governments do not occur outside Quebec, or occur less frequently and are less severe. In fact, such conflicts, including the Gustafsen Lake Standoff, the Ipperwash Crisis, the Burnt Church Crisis and the Caledonia land dispute, have occurred across the country.

[edit] Context

Main article: History of Quebec

St. James Street in Montreal, ca 1935. Although French-speakers had been in a majority since 1867, the language of signs in the downtown area of the city was predominantly English, until the 1970s.

Quebec is a Canadian province with a French-speaking majority (81% cite French alone as their mother tongue ^[47] while 95% have a working knowledge of French) ^[48]; in contrast the rest of Canada has a majority of English speakers (75% cite English alone as their mother tongue ^[47] while 98% have a working knowledge in the last census) compared to only 11% who have a working knowledge of French ^[48].

Before 1763, the land that is currently the Province of Quebec was part of New France, an area of North America colonized by France. After the defeat of France, subsequent political changes saw this land become first a British colony and province, later a region united with the future province of Ontario, and finally a province of Canada in 1867. An early Quebec nationalist movement emerged in the 1820s under the Parti Patriote, arguing for greater autonomy for itself within the British Empire and at times flirting with the idea of independence. It led to the Patriote Rebellion, which was put down by the British Army, at roughly the same time as the failure of a similar rebellion among the English-speaking people of what is now Ontario. After the suppression of the rebellion, Quebec gradually became a more conservative society, one in which the Catholic Church occupied a more dominant position. Later, in the late 1950s and 1960s, a tremendous social change, known as the Quiet Revolution, took place; during this time French-Canadian society became rapidly more secular, and economically marginalized French-speaking Quebecers slowly and peacefully took control of Quebec's economy^{[citation needed]}. It was then that a second independence movement took root. During this time a violent terrorist organization called the Front de libération du Québec (FLQ) arose, as did the peaceful Parti Québécois, a provincial political party with the stated aims of independence and social democracy. Over time, the terrorist organisations vanished, while the PQ flourished.

While French is the majority language in Quebec, it is a small minority in most of the rest of Canada, and historically had faced demographic and economic pressures. Assimilation was feared and the French language was even discriminated against in parts of Quebec. This led theQuebec government of Liberal Party leader Premier Robert Bourassa to pass the Official Language Act (Bill 22) in 1974,abolishing English as an official language and making French the sole official language of Quebec. The Liberals were replaced by the PQ in the 1976 with René Lévesque, a major figure of the Quiet Revolution, becoming Premier of Quebec. One of the first actions of the PQ was enacting the Charter of the French Language (Bill 101). Many of the Charter's provisions expanded on the act of 1974. The protective language law outlawed the public display of English, making French signs obligatory, a stipulation that would later on be overturned by court challenges. A first referendum on sovereignty was held in 1980 (under the leadership of Lévesque the YES side lost with 40.44% of the votes) and a second in 1995 (with Lucien Bouchard, Jacques Parizeau and Mario Dumont as leaders the YES campaign narrowly lost at 49.44%). Both questions have been criticized by federalists and separatists alike for being unclear. The concession speech of Parizeau, in which he blamed the defeat on "money and the ethnic vote", taken by some as a tacit reference to traditional stereotypes of the Jews, created a controversy that saw disapproval from both sides and an apology from Parizeau himself the next day. Since then, this and many other incidents have been cited by critics of the nationalist movement as evidence of xenophobia. In 2000, the Michaud Affair also fed criticism. The nature of both events are hotly debated within French Quebec.

The modern nationalist and independence movements have been criticized by English-speaking Quebecers, ethnic minorities, and First nations, and by English Canadians outside Quebec, as has Bill 101, which has been successfully challenged in courts. Furthermore, many French-speaking Quebecers consider themselves a nation whose home is Quebec,^{[citation needed]} which is a source of dispute with English-speaking Canada^{[citation needed]}, and are split almost evenly about the National Question, that is to say independence or federate status (with or without the pursuit of special status within the federation). Further autonomy for Quebec and formal national recognition have historically been sought by federalists and sovereigntists alike. This has also been a source of animosity^{[citation needed]} for English Canadian society.

[edit] Response

Quebec-bashing has been denounced as dishonest,^[49] false,^[49] defamatory^[50] and sometimes prejudiced,^[49][51] racist,^{[52][4][53][54]} colonialist,^[4][55] or hate speech^[56] by many people of all origins^[57] and political colours^[6] in Quebec. It has also seen criticism in English Canada.^[58][59][60] Critics of "Quebec bashing" argue that Quebec is a tolerant and inclusive society and advance a number of arguments, some of which are mentioned in the examples section.

In response to Quebec's history of antisemitism, French-Canadians assert that English-speaking Canada was equally as antisemitic as French speaking Quebecers. Jews, who as a national minority, faced persecution across Canada, were subject to quotas at institutions such as McGill University, as well as French Catholic institutions. The federal government notoriously refused entry to Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi persecution in Europe in the 1930s and 1940s; that was at the behest of French Quebec. As a French Roman Catholic ethnic and religious minority in the British Empire, Quebec was first in the British Empire to grant Jews full civil and political rights in the Act of June 5, 1832, after the debate over Jewish Three Rivers resident Ezekiel Hart.^[61] The English Canadian media are, however, more willing to acknowledge Canada's history of antisemitism, and incidents such as the Christie Pits riots in Toronto or the prejudice faced in Toronto legal circles by later Supreme Court Justice Bora Laskin that have been repeatedly documented by historians and journalists.

Organizations, such as the Saint-Jean-Baptiste Society (SSJB) attempt to defend Quebec society and lodge formal complaints about perceived misrepresentation. In 1999 Guy Bouthillier, then president of the SSJB, lamenting the phenomenon, pointed out that the "right to good reputation" was a recognized right in the Quebec Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms, inspired by the international human rights declations of the post-war era.^[62] In 1998, under the leadership of Gilles Rhéaume (a former SSJB president)^{[citation needed]}, the Mouvement souverainiste du Québec filed a memorandum to the International Federation of Human Rights in Paris that mentioned anti-Quebec press articles. In 2000, Rhéaume filed a memorandum to the United Nations regarding "violations by Canada of the political rights of Quebecers", including media defamation.^[63] He also founded the Ligue Québécoise contre la francophobie canadienne ("Quebec league against Canadian francophobia") explicitely to defend against "Quebec bashing". English Canadian journalist Ray Conlogue has denounced the anti-Quebec press.^[64]

Journalist Normand Lester wrote three volumes of The Black Book of English Canada in which "Quebec bashing" is denounced.^[65] The books have been criticized for their lack of proper source references, and for their tendency to treat as revelations incidents and facts that although not extensively written about in French are actually well-known and acknowledged in English Canada. In the books Lester noted "It is one of the characteristics of racist discourse to demonize the group that is condemned, all the while giving oneself all virtues, to pretend representing universalism while the group targeted by hateful discourse is denounced as petty, and its demands, without value, anti-democratic and intolerant". The book offered a counter-point by chronicling the racist and anti-semitic history of English Canada. The author argued that Quebec was never more anti-semitic than English Canada. Most notably, it underlined the fervent federalist opinions of fascist Adrien Arcand and revealed for the first time that his former fascist National Social Christian Party was funded by Prime Minister of Canada R. B. Bennett and his Conservative Party (see R. B. Bennett, 1st Viscount Bennett#Controversy). He argued that the fascist party was so marginal that it would never have been viable, had it not been for the funding. Lester was suspended from his job at the federal Société Radio-Canada for publishing this book; he subsequently resigned.

[edit] Debate

While examples of anti-Quebec coverage in English Canada are recognized by a number of French-speaking people in Quebec, whether this represents a wide phenomenon and an opinion held by many people in English Canada is subject to debate. Certainly the print examples cited here constitute only a tiny portion of English-Canadian print journalism during the period covered. Chantal Hébert noted that commentators such as Graham Fraser, Jeffrey Simpson and Paul Wells, who are more positive about Quebec, were often called upon by the Canadian media since the 1995 referendum. She also mentioned Edward Greenspon, who, however, as editor-in-chief of the The Globe and Mail, ended up defending an alleged instance of Quebec bashing in 2006, Globe and Mail columnist Jan Wong's "Get under the desk".^[66]

Graham Fraser, an English Canadian journalist noted for his sympathy for Quebec, has tempered both sides. "This phenomenon (of English Canadian francophobia) exists, I do not doubt it; I have read enough of Alberta Report to know that there are people that think bilingualism is a conspiracy against English Canadians to guarantee jobs for Quebecers — who are all bilingual, anyway.", he wrote. "I have heard enough call-in radio shows to know that these sentiments of fear and rage are not confined to the Canadian west. But, I do not think these anti-francophone prejudices dominate the Canadian culture."^[67] Fraser, in fact, was himself named as Canada's new Official Languages Commissioner in September of 2006.

Quebec remains a province of Canada and is not recognized officially as a 'Nation' by anyone. The Quebec people have been recognized (unofficially) as a 'Nation' by the Canadian Parliament. Quebec-Bashing as a term has become a reference to attacking something unrelated to the province and more a reference to attacking this 'Nation' which remains undefined and elusive in explanation as Quebec's people are now a very diverse 'Nation'.

[edit] Other depictions

Other English-speaking journalists have earned a notable reputation for a much fairer and sympathetic view of Quebec, in sovereigntist and federalist circles alike, such as Ray Conlogue, Peter Scowen or Graham Fraser, or Don Macpherson.

[edit] Further reading

[edit] In English

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:

Quebec bashing

• Maryse Potvin, "Some Racist Slips about Quebec in English Canada Between 1995 and 1998", in Canadian Ethnic Studies, volume XXXII, issue 2, 2000, pages 1-26.

[edit] In French

• Guy Bouthillier, L'obsession ethnique, Outremont, Lanctôt Éditeur, 1997, 240 pages ISBN 2-89485-027-1 (The Ethnic Obsession)
• Oka par la caricature: Deux visions distinctes d'une même crise by Réal Brisson, Septentrion, 2000, ISBN 2-89448-160-8 (Oka Through Caricatures: Two Distinct Vision of the Same Crisis)
• Daniel S.-Legault, "Bashing anti-Québec; uppercut de la droite", in VO: Vie ouvrière, summer 1997, pages 4-7. (Anti-Quebec Bashing; an uppercut from the right)
• Sylvie Lacombe, "Le couteau sous la gorge ou la perception du souverainisme québécois dans la presse canadienne-anglaise", in Recherches sociographiques, december 1998 (The knife under the throat or the perception of Quebec sovereigntism in the English-Canadian Press)
• Michel Sarra-Bourret, Le Canada anglais et la souveraineté du Québec, VLB Éditeur, 1995 (English Canada and the Sovereignty of Quebec)
• Serge Denis, "Le long malentendu. Le Quebec vu par les intellectuels progressistes au Canada anglais 1970-1991", Montréal, Boréal, 1992 (The long misunderstanding. Quebec seen by progressive intellectuals in English Canada 1970-1991)
• Serge Denis, "L'analyse politique critique au Canada anglais et la question du Québec", 1970-1993, in Revue québécoise de science politique, volume 23, 1993, p. 171-209 (Critical Political Analysis in English Canada and the Quebec of Quebec)
• P. Frisko et J.S. Gagné, "La haine. Le Québec vu par le Canada anglais", in Voir, 18-24 juin, 1998 (Hatred. Quebec Seen by English Canada)

[edit] References

[edit] See also

• I Am Not Canadian
• Speak white
• Le Livre noir du Canada anglais
• Quebec federalism
• Quebec sovereignty
• Anglo-Quebecer
• Canadian Ethnic Cleansing Team