Dissension in Canada

...Instead, it appears that a whole complex of long-submerged economic, political, social and emotional factors has combined to create a crisis not only for the Province of Quebec, but for Canada as a whole...

...In a curious way, this resurgent nationalism in regard to U.S.-Canadian relations seems to duplicate exactly the tortuous "chain of causation" motivating the nationalistic agitation in Quebec: Collective feelings of frustration, insecurity and inferiority inducing a state of hypersensitivity in which a relatively small ethnic or national entity sees itself threatened by an infinitely larger and more powerful neighbor...

...But in the United States there appears to be little realization of the crisis rapidly building up at its doorstep, a crisis that has all the ingredients of tomorrow's headlines...

...Not long ago Le Temps, official organ of the main opposition party in L'Etat de Quebec, offered this assessment of him: "He is nothing but a disguised federalist who has been playing with the nationalist sentiments of FrenchCanadians...

...If, as is widely claimed, this basic constitutional act originally passed in Westminster has not worked out and should therefore be amended or scrapped, it is both futile and impossible to demonstrate just how much of this claim is based on fact or fantasy...

...Certainly the current cleavage between the "founding partners" is both different from and more serious than previous frictions...

...Lawrence...

...With less than half a year to go, time is fast running out and these demands—among them, all succession duties levied in the Province and 25 per cent of all income and corporation taxes—which no central government could hope to meet without entirely abdicating its constitutional role, are only one of the many agonizing aspects of the situation...

...What is more, as a result of intriguing chain reactions, it may yet become more readily apparent that what is taking place between Quebec City and Ottawa is really only a dialogue within a larger dialogue...

...Significantly, the still powerful Union Nationale has been indicted by a Royal Commission for graft involving some $2 million in industrial suppliers' "kick-backs" for the benefit of its proteges during its recently ended regime—a system of patronage which cynics describe as a time-honored Quebec "malaise" that sooner or later is liable to afflict any ruling party in the Province...

...There is a basic paradox in the French-Canadian attitude that seems to defy logical reasoning...

...In a recent major speech before an electrified Ottawa Parliament, Lamontagne lashed out at the "demagogues" of Quebec whom he labelled "fellow travellers of separatism...

...Should that happen, it is not difficult to imagine the consequences in today's interdependent world— especially south of the 49th parallel...

...An attack of this kind on the Quebec Premier may come as a surprise to most English-speaking Canadians...

...What Levesque said in essence was that unless French Canada's demands and autonomy are granted ("in the next two, three, or, at the most, five years") it would walk out on the rest of the nation and form an independent state on the shores of the St...

...These include the municipal loan fund, designed to curb rampant unemployment, and a plan to provide "portable" nationwide pensions—both measures long demanded by the other nine provinces...

...Fed by feelings of insecurity and inferiority that strongly persist to the present day, there evolved from this defensive posture against les Anglais a religious and educational introversion, coupled with economic backwardness, which are anachronistic in the highly developed industrial society of English Canada...

...And although few will openly say so, it is widely known that in filling 10 out of 27 ministerial posts, Pearson experienced the same difficulties that private corporations in Quebec are incessantly up against in their adroit scramble to move with the times: Due to a marked scarcity of indigenous talent, a French name rather than relevant qualifications often appears to be the passport to positions of responsibility...

...If, as seems likely, opposition from Quebec succeeds in jeopardizing the Pearson program aimed at achieving at least some degree of economic stability, the country may find itself drifting rudderless, unable to deal with its pressing financial and economic problems...

...On the other hand, as a "charter member" of the Canadian government, with special claims on Confederation, it also fights to have the French language and "la dualité francaise" extended beyond the limits laid down by the present Canadian Constitution...

...Lesage himself is not a separatist at heart, but when he stepped from federal into provincial politics he became caught up, like a branch in a whirlpool, in the feverish temper of his native region...

...Lawrence by Wolfe's troops...

...Lesage acquitted himself well in dislodging the firmly entrenched, corruption-ridden and supposedly more extreme Union Nationale regime from the ancient capital of La Belle Province...

...In these circumstances, it is small wonder there are mounting signs that if some of these pressing national issues are not resolved, the hitherto patient temper of the rest of the country is likely to wear thin...

...Many objective observers feel this arrested development, rather than encroachment from the outside, is responsible for much of Quebec's business and industry being left in English (or, more accurately, English and Irish) hands...

...He may soon be pushed to a position so far out that he will not be able to get back to middle ground...

...On the one hand, La Belle Province designates itself a "state" (in the sense of the collective assertion— "l'etat c'est moi"), rejects as an encroachment sorely needed federal funds, agitates for making French the sole official language within its borders, and generally appears to aim at the minimum objective of a constitutional dichotomy...

...With Pearson emulating this party comeback in the subsequent federal elections by defeating the Diefenbaker government, the stage seemed set for a close rapport between the two new Liberal Premiers...

...In the face of strong pressure from Quebec, projects totalling more than half the Pearson government's legislative "New Frontier" program to stimulate the economy have had to be shelved...

...Yet, not only have these hopeful expectations failed to materialize but today, ironically, the gulf between the two capitals is wider than ever...

...For the new and virulent nationalism which has emerged in the last few years in Quebec is deeply rooted in the very birth of the Canadian Confederation and in the difficult union of its two dissimilar founding races...

...The young and brilliant Lamontagne, president of the federal Privy Council and the exact opposite of Lesage in style and outlook, is valiantly fighting the surge toward separatism and coming under increasingly heavy fire for his troubles...

...An elaborate simultaneous translation service has been installed in the federal Parliament, and the civil service—where the French-Canadian has never really felt at home— is also undergoing an extensive reshuffle to attract more members of Canada's other founding race and to make their language more universally understood...

...They forget that their ethnic group no longer represents half the population of Canada, as it did when it became one of the founding fathers of the Confederation...

...Rejected by "Mother France" and yet unable to assimilate fully the pragmatism of the Anglo-Saxon institutions that had rapidly gained ascendancy on the Continent, French-Canadians turned in upon themselves as a tightly knit and (until recently) semi-feudal society firmly based on the authority of the Church and family bonds...

...These days a federal Prime Minister and his English-speaking colleagues must strain their linquistic proficiency by addressing French or mixed audiences—either inside or outside the House of Commons —in Canada's second language, despite the fact that the present Ottawa government has, both proportionally and in absolute numbers, the largest French-Canadian representation since 1867...

...For one thing, the "agonizing reappraisal" of the manner in which this constitutional bargain has worked out has reached the very highest circles of public life...

...The latest Canadian census shows there is another third of the population that is neither Anglo-Celtic nor French —and this miscellaneous group, made up largely of European immigrants, is getting restive at being excluded from the continuing dialogue...

...Typical of almost daily outbursts in this vein is the following quote from an editorial in the respected FrenchCanadian newspaper Le Nouvelliste: "History is history...

...And for good measure, he threw in this scathing reference to his AngloSaxon compatriots: "I would be devoid of any pride if I were to accept the one-way attitude of some English-speaking Canadians who behave as if they belonged to a superior race, but who fail to cover up their pitiful culture...

...After pointing out that "this masked and hypocritical form of separatism" could lead FrenchCanadians "unwittingly to collective suicide," Lamontagne went on to warn that the separatists were not the ones to be feared...

...Rent by internal dissension, the country may now be pushed into further accentuating the deep-rooted economic nationalism which at least commands the unquestioning support of both ethnic groups...

...Contrary to what some may think, the designation of Lamontagne as Ottawa's spokesman has not substantially reduced the pressure on Lesage...

...Faithful to the slogan Maitres Chez Nous, which had served him so well in his own election campaign, the Quebec Premier wanted, "within one year," a larger share of the federal fiscal revenue, or else...

...The real danger lies in a different direction...

...both men were pledged to reversing the rapid deterioration in relations between Ottawa and Quebec City...

...In fact, the running political battle between them is rapidly worsening the crisis over Canadian Confederation, and in Ottawa is creating an air of grim futility and near-despair about all efforts to heal the festering sore which Quebec has become in the Canadian body politic...

...Despairing of his own dwindling influence over his former Liberal colleague, Pearson has picked his own Quebec Lieutenant, Maurice Lamontagne, to act as his spokesman in dealings with the obstreperous Province...

...The real point is that the self-image of a conquered and maltreated people is part and parcel of the irrational French-Canadian ideology and has to be reckoned with...

...And if Quebec bruises easily these days in all federal-provincial questions, this is because of its own special blend of nationalistic ferment and separatist turmoil: extending from the thus far numerically small separatist groups and the terrorist Quebec Liberation Front, right across the provincial political spectrum to the "respectable" parties of both the government and principal opposition...

...It must be taught as it is, with all the delusions of Confederation, the hangings of 1837 and the burning of the villages along the lower St...

...They also see it as the reason for the somewhat less than fair and equal representation in federal affairs given les Quebecois and their jealously guarded native tongue...

...Unlike earlier minor outbreaks largely backed by the powerful Roman Catholic hierarchy, the latest movement for separation is mainly secular and a manifestation of what are considered ancient grievances by les Habitants...

...Recent experience has shown Canada to be either unable or unwilling to finance its own economic growth and stability, while at the same time it looks with growing disfavor, even hostility, upon the foreign—i.e., U.S.—help that has for so long filled the vacuum...

...He charged these men with "not having the courage to tell French-speaking Canadians what will happen to them if these proposals are refused...

...instead, he blasted away at the "sorcerer's apprentices of separatism, because in using this movement as an instrument of blackmail, they will provoke a flood which they will soon be unable to control...

...This is not to suggest that Canada is in immediate danger of falling apart, despite the words of men like Rene Levesque, the acknowledged power behind the Lesage "throne,' who has summoned Quebec to secede from "the bad bargain of Confederation" and pictured an independent French Canada guarded by tariff walls and doing business with the world on its own...

...To find a plausible explanation for this style of behavior, so fraught with irrational emotions and so out of tune with Western democratic concepts, one has to look beyond the deadly mailbox bomb blasts in Montreal and beyond the "explosives" used in varying doses by almost all Quebec orators today...

...It is now being recalled here that a little more than six months ago, in the week before the Pearson party won its expected victory at the polls, Lesage issued an ultimatum...

...Meanwhile, the dialogue between Quebec City and Ottawa is bound to continue chipping away at the nation's very foundation...

...The entire problem of constitutional "co-existence" within Canada's borders is also being tackled by the long-promised "Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism," which Pearson established on July 22...

...But already the sceptics are pointing out, and with some justification, that even if the 10-man commission (composed of eminent private citizens rather than government representatives) should arrive at concrete resolutions after the customary protracted deliberations, a major hurdle would still have to be overcome: None of these recommendations can be acted upon unless there is complete agreement between Ottawa and all 10 provinces...

...Nevertheless, the French, even though now a minority, have their own religion, schools, code of law and language firmly and irrevocably guaranteed by the venerable British North America Act, which is at the center of the present controversy...

...Pearson has made valiant efforts to soothe Quebec's ire, but he has invariably been rebuffed by the Province that now calls itself a "state" and flies into fits of Gallic frenzy over any new alleged attempt by the federal government to involve itself in provincial affairs...

...Laurent that was swept out of office by John Diefenbaker's Progressive-Conservative landslide in 1957...

...Rolf E. Spencer, a freelance journalist, frequently writes on political developments in Canada...

...Yet even in this excoriating speech against the mood in Quebec, Lamontagne echoed the striking universality of current sentiment in the Province by also calling for a "renewed" or "revised" Confederation...

...Picked to lead the defeated party, Pearson quickly assigned his trusted colleague the task of arresting the long-continuing decline in the fortunes of the autonomous Quebec Liberal party—a prerequisite for Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition regaining control on Ottawa's Parliament Hill...

...He charged that to outbid each other in their demands and to cash in on the popular mood in the Province, Quebec political leaders today make proposals they know cannot be acceptable within the realm of Confederation...

...After 200 years of association with the single largest French ethnic group outside the mother country, and after nearly 100 years of formal Confederation, English Canada may well be set on a collision course...

...For another, the present discontent is neither confined to special groups nor focussed on one specific issue, such as the wartime agitation against conscription which had largely been fanned by the Catholic clergy...

...French Canada has a long memory, dating back some 200 years to the time when it was abandoned by the ancien regime and when, though an incongruous enclave heavily outnumbered by the surrounding Anglo-Saxons, it became a vital prop that helped shore up British rule in North America after the 13 colonies had severed their imperial connection...

...It fits very well, however, into the pattern of active flirtation the Union Nationale has been carrying on lately with the Province's "moderate" separatists...

...A second ultimatum was recently delivered by Lesage's principal lieutenant, the fiery, fanatical and highly articulate Quebec Resources Minister Rene Levesque, which some Cabinet Ministers have privately described as "frightening stuff...

...Already Premier Ernest Manning of Alberta Province has raised his voice in protest against Lesage's veto...

...Fired up by a small but fanatical intellectual elite, any self-respecting French-Canadian can reel off the string of past "grievances,' all of which he considers "defeats" similar to the one suffered in 1763...

...Harping incessantly on equal representation, on bi-culturalism, bilingualism and many other "bi-isms," many French-Canadians tend to over-state their case...