Foreword: many thanks to Tim Pelzer who edited this article, tpelzer@shaw.ca, please note that at the bottom you will find the link to an English selection of the french daily communist newspaper L'Humanité.
Si vous voulez lire en français: http://www.laviereelle.blogspot.com/
So many French-Canadians love Canada. In 1973 when I w
as 16 years old, I left Québec City on a beautiful July morning with two friends, Didier and Vincent, on a cycling trip to Toronto. We were proud and “endowed” with a mission: to convince English speaking Canadians that Québec should leave Canada. We were also intent on collecting further evidence proving that English speaking Canadians were out to destroy our nation and assimilate us into the melting pot of cultures. Didn’t we learn in secondary school that we could suffer from this disaster?
as 16 years old, I left Québec City on a beautiful July morning with two friends, Didier and Vincent, on a cycling trip to Toronto. We were proud and “endowed” with a mission: to convince English speaking Canadians that Québec should leave Canada. We were also intent on collecting further evidence proving that English speaking Canadians were out to destroy our nation and assimilate us into the melting pot of cultures. Didn’t we learn in secondary school that we could suffer from this disaster?(Photo: always ready to move around to learn and share knowledge)
Once we arrived in Ontario, English speakers made us feel like kings. They treated us like famous athletes, offering free food and accommodation. They listened to us patiently when we spoke our broken English, making us feel like honoured guests.
People smiled at us and greeted us in a friendly manner. What an eye opening disappointment! What were we going to report to our friends back home about our journey to the “enemy’s kingdom”. In fact, we had nothing to complain... Besides, our parents were involved in the organization Expérience de vie internationale, (International Life Experience) to promote cultural exchanges with young people from USA. Now we were going to meet Québec’s real foes. Instead, these young people, especially those from New York taught us many interesting topics and introduced us to the music of Cat Stevens. It also happened - and we should not mention it too loudly- that we fell in love with the young beauties of our neighbouring country and learn to kiss for the first time.
Here again, we suffered a major setback in our endeavour to justify why Québec should separate from English speaking Canada.
The following year I went to Newfoundland. Instead of finding big mean English barbarians, I received a warm welcome. The people there were keen to know what Québec City looked like. They invited us to visit their houses, a wedding ceremony and an evening dance.
After a turbulent time in French speaking high school that led to my expulsion, my parents sent me to an English speaking high school, St.Patrick’s in Québec City to complete grade 12. During my year there I had a conflict with the “established gang”. One hot summer evening while savouring a beer in the Battlefields Federal Park, I met them by accident. We chatted and I told them that my presence in their High School had not been my choice and that I had been kicked out of French speaking school. They offered me a beer. Cheers they said happily. I became part of the gang.
In 1975, Québec students were engaged in a tight struggle with the government over the loan and bursary issue. Campus student organizations across the province were about to hold a meeting to create the National Association of Students (ANEQ). Speaking English, the Bishop University’s student delegation –consisting of three young women- invited me to be their translator at the upcoming meeting. A few months later I was elected to the national union’s Executive Council. I also jo
ined the Young Communist League (YCL) of Canada. This was a turning point in my life. I agreed with the Communist party’s position on the place of Québec within confederation and its two-nation solution. I proposed this approach to the ANEQ and they adopted this position. At that time the union had 110,000 members and was very influential in Québec. The separatist Parti québécois members within the ANEQ were not happy.
ined the Young Communist League (YCL) of Canada. This was a turning point in my life. I agreed with the Communist party’s position on the place of Québec within confederation and its two-nation solution. I proposed this approach to the ANEQ and they adopted this position. At that time the union had 110,000 members and was very influential in Québec. The separatist Parti québécois members within the ANEQ were not happy. (Photo: The Parti québécois members ultimately brought the cemetary peace within the Québec student movement in the 1980s)
ANEQ opened the horizons of Québec students after it invited the Prague based International Union of Students (IUS) to visit them in Québec City. The Association was also involved in the preparations for the World Youth and Students Festival that was going to take place in Habana, Cuba in the summer of 1978. The ANEQ spearheaded efforts to establish links with students in Ontario. Our motto was: Let’s get rid of this old story of two solitudes! We were young and wanted to create a new Canada. It was before the first separatist referendum in Québec. All over Canada, young communists were working for a new, modern and dynamic country.
But PQ members launched a counter attack and took over the ANEQ. At the 1978 ANEQ Convention, they elected their candidates to the executive, except for one position: information secretary which I occupied until my demotion. The PQ could not find anybody else to take the position. It was the beginning of the end for the YCL in Québec which lost most of its influence within the organization.
The YCL still exists but is in the process of rebuilding. By the way, All-Canada YCL general secretary Johan Boyden is going to marry Québec YCL leader Marianne Breton-Fontaine and they are expecting their first child in June 2010.
I spoke about my friends and me who in the early 1970s were trying to discover something that in reality did not exist. Contrary to what nationalists were and today are still claiming the French speaking nation of Québec is not facing the threat of disappearing. My childhood friend, Vincent Giguère, is now an international leader in the field of nuclear receptors, -a class of DNA-binding proteins that regulate the expression of genes-. He works very hard. In October 2009, McGill University proudly announced that this researcher has been elected as Fellow to the Royal Society of Canada, “in recognition of [his] outstanding scientific achievement”. Vincent is not a communist, but he is certainly a democrat like his family. He studied cloning in Great Britain in the 1980s. I could have spoken about medical doctor François Desbiens, or Michel Forget, who works closely with the leadership of the Confederation of National Trade Unions (CSN).
They all have been in a way or another involved in the student movement during the 1970s and helped foster understanding between French and English speaking students. The movement is certainly not dead.
I can say that they believe in democracy. They paved the way for their children to preserve what the past generations achieved. They are part of the new generation of French-Canadians who are open to other people and not intimidated by immigrants who want to learn the French language and enjoy Québec’s lively culture – i.e. jazz, music and comedy festivals and the like during the summer period.
(Photo: some delicatessen from Lebanon and Pakistan)
Modestly, many French Canadians would like other Canadians to know that in Québec, French Canadians are not all alike and that the future belongs to the working class and the progressive intellectuals and artists.
Vive le Canada populaire!
L'Humanité in English
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