FRENCH-CANADIANS AND IMMIGRANTS

THE GENTLEMAN'S AGREEMENT

vol. 2, no.10, December 2009, $ 1.00
si vous voulez lire en français, : http://www.laviereelle.blogspot.com/

FOREWORD: Many thanks to Tim Pelzer, tpelzer@shaw.ca who edited this article. Don't forget the link below to L'Humanité in English, selection of the daily communist newspaper published in Paris.
___________________________________


Daniel Paquet*

Who knows? Maybe the book recently published by former Québec Premier Jacques Parizeau is going to crash.

At the moment the Parti Québécois (PQ) is trying by any means to kindle the light of separatism. The left leaning party Québec solidaire is also expecting to attract the nationalist vote, especially youth who reject the PQ’s conservative orientation. Actually, it looks like a child’s game of musical chairs: the music plays and when it stops, you better find a chair; otherwise you will be expelled from the game.

The PQ is the official opposition party in the National Assembly and plays on the federal government’s failure to recognize Québec’s French Canadian nation. Of course, the Stephen Harper conservative party recognized Québec as nation. But, in practice, it is like affirming officially and strongly that Toronto is in Ontario!

PQ leaders take profit from the French Canadian people’s dissatisfaction with the status quo. They believe that – especially in some parts of Montréal- you have to speak English in commercial outlets and restaurants now. This is partly true. But it is not a deliberate campaign by small business owners as they don’t feel that they are going to increase their customer base by recruiting more French speaking personnel. Nevertheless, French Canadians, especially the young, feel hurt by this. Their reaction is understandable, though exaggerated.
(Photo: once attended the catholic churches are now deserted by the French-Canadians)

The Communist Party of Canada (CPC) speaks the language of wisdom and democracy. They advocate recognizing the right of the French Canadian to self-determination up and including secession from Canada. They oppose, naturally, discrimination against French Canadians in La Belle Province wherever they work and live. Of course, they don’t believe immigrants and English Canadians should be forced to speak French but instead encouraged to learn and use the language.

It is obvious that in the future, the French Canadians will have to learn English, but it must not be mandatory. They must be encouraged to do it gradually without loosing the French language. Anyhow, today it is common for immigrant children to speak French and English as well as their parent’s language (Spanish, Arabic or Urdu).

In the past, the Communists associated themselves regularly with the PQ members on various issues, like peace campaigns, solidarity with the Chilean people or the defence of Cuba. Many PQ members are progressive, but they are fiercely obtuse on the national question. It is almost a psychological barrier. PQ members are active in people’s associations, unions and movements and they outnumber communist Party members in these movements. During elections they win easily. One must not make mistakes: the PQ is not like the New Democratic Party, a socialist party or a social-democrat party. Instead it is a coalition party with a left wing.
(Photo: big canadian companies benefit from the absence of a mass communist party in Canada)

However, the CPC has influence in the trade-unions. One of the Party’s mistakes during the 1990s was to recruit former nationalists to its ranks, nearly destroying the Party. The revolutionary “pessimism” was caused by the Soviet Union’s disappearance added to the Party’s near downfall. The communist movement in Québec overcame this mistake and is ready to form alliances with the PQ members but on an equal footing. Furthermore, the centrist Liberal Party led by Jean Charest adopts policies that are fair for the people, even though the PQ waits like a vulture to diminish the Liberals in the public eye.

Finally, the PQ has no newspaper in Québec like for instance the French Communist Party daily newspaper l’Humanité. Our readers should know that many journalists from the written and electronic press have attended courses at Montréal’s Québec University under the direction of the late professor Pierre Bourgault, former leader of the nationalist Rassemblement pour l’Indépendance Nationale (Rally for the National Independence –RIN). Bourgault liked to ridicule Greek, Italian and Jews, while he was smoking his eternal Gitanes at his classroom’s entrance. Of course, he could not ignore the progressive and dynamic role played by representatives of theses communities in the development of the communist movement in Montréal.
(Photo SolidNet: communist meeting in Greece)

The French Canadians workers realize now that you can deal about bread and butter and still ask for a Québec traditional product. Finally, one should be aware that communists are developing the embryo of a mass organization in Montréal’s eastend. One day, the French CBC anchorman, at an electoral soirée will announce that “if the trend keeps on going, the next government will be formed by the communist party…”


L'Humanité in English
______________


* (Daniel Paquet studied Communications at Montréal’s Québec University from 1993 to 1996, where he graduated in journalism with honours)



- 30 -

ABOUT TRUTH AND VICTORY

vol. 2, no. 9, November 2009, $ 1.00

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

FOREWORD: Many thanks to Tim Pelzer, tpelzer@shaw.ca who edited this article. Don't forget the link below to L'Humanité in English, selection of the daily communist newspaper published in Paris.
______________________________

It’s all started with the last column that I wrote. My dear friend and editor, Tim, said to me: “Sometimes you can be overly abstract and theoretical to the point that I have trouble understanding what you are saying […] if I have trouble understanding what you are saying, I am sure that your readers will have the same problem.”

I read over the whole article. Tim is right. But why publish a newsletter in English if one cannot express himself properly? The reason is very basic: I am totally devoted to the Québec people and I want English speaking Canadians - and others - to know that we are not a bunch of angry, restless separatists, waiting for the next referendum to drag us out of Canada. Naturally, since this column is read by intellectuals and journalists, I did not want to give them the impression that La Vie Réelle in English was a simple read that could be labelled as a cheap piece of French Canadian communist writing. (Photo: a typical French-Canadian homestead in Québec City)

But Tim, very generously, added: “You can express yourself well in English. I know this because of our wonderful email conversations. Write as if you are writing your readers an email. Write in simple prose that is easy to grasp. This is important if you want to appeal to working class readers.” Not only was I touched, but it brought two things to mind: first that we have to persuade people in Québec that it is important to learn English and second it is important to learn the history of English speaking Canada. Even communists around the world have adopted English in their communications. For instance, SolidNet, the Communist and Worker's Parties central communication's bureau in Athens, Greece distributes documents and bulletins in Spanish, Italian, Russian, Portuguese and English. Few documents are in French. I believe that when the French communist party becomes more involved in world solidarity movements there will be more French publications. At the moment, even Québec communists use English to communicate with central party headquarters in Toronto.

Of course, main documents are translated from English to French. Those living in Vancouver, Halifax or Hamilton should know that there is a lively, flourishing French speaking culture in Québec. We have prominent and talented singers like Robert Charlesbois (Ordinaire) as well as new ones like Lynda Thalie (Une femme amoureuse), an immigrant from the Arab world. Well, the point is that we don’t eat pea soup, cretons and pâté chinois like in the past. We have changed. We go for sushi, couscous and souvlaki now. And there are even some who believe that God does not oppose French Canadians joining the communist party. C’est la vie… (Photo : a Montréal-born new Québécoise, Nile)

Even in the labour movement there are changes. For instance the Québec Centre of Trade Unions, formerly the Québec Teacher's Union, decided at its last convention in June 2009 to get involved in politics “so that we live in the type of society that we want to build”. We increased our solidarity with workers from other parts of the world. For instance, the Québec Federation of Labour (500 000 members) opposes the Free Trade Agreement that the Canadian government signed with Colombia because of the systematic violations of human rights in that country. The Union Centre invites its “member unions and regional councils to put pressure on conservative and liberal MPs…” And, the Confederation of National Trade Unions (300 000 members) will enlarge its support policy for striking workers. Recently, union members working at Le Journal de Québec decided to “give 1% of their salaries to the union representing 253 workers at Le Journal de Montréal”, who have been on lock-out for over 8 months.

Karl Marx in the article published under the title of Communism and the Augsburg Allgemeine Zeitung, concluded that: “ We are firmly convinced that the real danger lies not in practical attempts, but in the theoretical elaboration of communist ideas, for practical attempts, even mass attempts, can be answered by cannon as soon as they become dangerous, whereas ideas, which have conquered our intellect and taken possession of our minds, ideas to which reason has fettered our conscience, are chains from which one cannot free oneself without a broken heart…” (Collected Works, Vol. 1, International Publishers, New York, 1985, pp. 220-221)

As readers know, there is an older bulletin named La Vie Réelle (just in french). One of its readers wrote not long ago: “A very good issue. One reads it and can make up one’s own opinion. Articles are never aggressive, I appreciate it.” (Photo: a renovated catholic church in Québec City)

L'Humanité in English

- 30 -