A JOURNEY IN TORONTO

vol. 1, no. 1, September 2008, $ 1.00


si vous voulez lire en français, : http://www.laviereelle.blogspot.com/

When I told my doctor that I intend to publish an English-speaking newsletter, she said to me, both startled and amused: “you’ve got to be sick; why do you want to support the English imperialism while too many cultures on the planet are threatened by the rules of their domination?” Since she was not dealing with my health, I decided for the first time to do not follow her piece of advice.

I know by experience that our neighbours in English-speaking Canada and the USA can be touched by any culture if we find the correct way to present it to them. Maybe then, they will be inclined to learn other languages and cultures. Naturally, almost everybody knows Céline Dion. She is herself very popular in Québec, because she has a nice voice, she comes from a very large family and she has ordinary people’s roots. However, she is not the best of the singers that one can discover in Canada. For instance, Lara Fabian, an Italian-born composer and singer, has more than a beautiful voice; she is sensual, more profound and she deals in a simple way with themes such as love, optimism and hope.

Nevertheless, Céline is an idol because, for the ordinary folk, she represents the success of a young French-Canadian girl, who made it big in Québec and especially abroad. As we state it here: “she put Québec on the map.”

Most of the people in English-speaking Canada do not understand the Québec nationalism. Of course, La Vie Réelle does not support such an ideology, but we acknowledged it. After being a French colony, Canada (then called la Nouvelle-France), was conquered by Britain who turned it to an English colony from 1760 to 1867. The French elite left the Nouvelle-France after the war opposing France to England at the end of the 1750s; 60 000 peasants remained along the St.Lawrence river, and the aboriginal peoples. A few years later, the Britishes authorized the Catholic Church to organize the spiritual life of the Canadians. In fact, they maintained the spiritual control for the military administration at least until the foundation of modern Canada with a larger population composed of English-speaking immigrants. French became a minority group. But the matter is not in numbers, it is in the policies of the British rulers who tried to assimilate the French-Canadians, already after 1839, i.e. the years that succeeded the armed uprising of the patriots in Ontario and Québec.

While the English-speaking provinces of Canada were industrialized, Québec stagnated into a pastoral province. It lasted to the 1960s, when important changes took place. The period was called the “Quiet Revolution”. A Department of Education was established, public colleges opened, hydro energy was nationalized and the like. The church lost its grip on the people. An urban intelligentsia emerged and forced the government to modernize life in the province. Trade unions developed and demanded a better treatment for the French-Canadian working class, similar to the one in Ontario for example.

Artists, intellectuals and trade unions leaders united to claim an independent Québec, confident in their strength and ability to manage the province. Two referenda gave almost the majority to the nationalists, especially in 1995. But now, the situation is at stake. In fact, an important ally (and political leader)for the forces of changes and equality between the two Canada is only recovering from internal crises and… you guessed it: international events that destroyed its credibility in Québec; we speak of the communist party.

Up to now, every party or group in the scope of the left is surrounding the new political formation called Québec solidaire. However, the communists are completed sunk in this party. Further, they don’t have the resources to publish regularly their newspaper Clarté. Anyhow, they received the help of the Communist party of Canada.

At the end of the day, the workers of Québec will see that the solution to the national question, to the reduction of the purchasing power and evils of capitalism goes through a strong communist party. La Vie Réelle wants to bring its contribution to this feat, because we believe in the words of the Communist Manifesto: “In place of the old bourgeois society, with its classes and class antagonisms, we shall have an association in which the free development of each is the condition for the free development of all.”

The reader of La Vie Réelle should notice that the newsletter is independent from the Communist party; the newspaper of this party is People’s Voice, published bi-monthly. It is a good paper. We only wish that eventually, the communists in Québec will have such a paper in French language.

Now, why the title of this article? In 1976, then a student leader, I have been invited to join the Communist party of Québec. After double-thinking, I agreed; the day after, we drove to Toronto to meet the Young communist League (YCL) members in this city. Believe me, the YCL was really the organization to be member of in the 1970s. We had fun, we drank beer and we had talks about politics. We reshaped the world. A few years after, the caucus of the YCL and the Young New Democrats in the National Union of Students (of English-speaking Canada) along with the writer of those lines contributed so that the union and the Association nationale des étudiants du Québec recognized each other as an equal partner and as well the right of Québec to self-determination including secession, if it is the choice of the people of Québec. Even today, such a stand could be agreed upon in the workers movements and the progressive intelligentsia. The spirit of the Young Communist League is well and alive. They discuss and… they act!



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