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Something that I had been concerned about since this all happened. An article in today’s Grope & Fail with translated sources from French language newspapers. Honestly, had it not been for my observations of apathy amongst my French speaking co-workers and Francophones in general as well as the low Francophone memberships Montreal and Quebec City Chapters of Canadians against prorogation rally planning groups on Facebook and, search as I may, not much reaction from Gilles Duceppe other than the following tweet on his Twitter account, I wouldn’t have believed the article in the Grope & Fail.
Sadly, they feel their voices aren’t heard enough in Ottawa; that their voices don’t count.
Gilles Duceppe’s reaction: prorogation has become “a tradition for Harper.”
“Instead of facing the music, he prorogues,” Duceppe wrote.
Other than the fact the Bloc announced its’ plans to work in their ridings, like the N.D.P., not much is happening from that corner. Perhaps if Gilles Duceppe announced it was going back to Ottawa alongside the Liberals on January 25 and he made that known to the mainstream media, perhaps Quebecers may have a different attitude toward prorogation.
A variety of reasons seem to contribute to French Quebec’s apathy: from lack of understanding of Canada’s Parliamentary system to lack of respect for parliament, according to the Grope & Fail.
Josee Legault of the Montreal French language weekly, Le Voir writes:
“There’s nothing like a populace ignorant of its own democratic institutions to allow a prime minister to go so far as to strip our elected representatives of their constitutional prerogatives,”
Now, that is frightening. Education would be the logical answer, but one has to want to know. One gets the feeling, they don’t want to know, so how do we engage them?
I work for a social services agency that serves the Anglophone population of Quebec; thus far, only one of my co-workers is interested in attending the Montreal rally up to date and asked me to keep him up to date. The rest don’t even know about or barely heard grumblings of it.
One of my French speaking co-workers came up to me yesterday and simply grimaced; ” it doesn’t matter what we think or do; Harper will get his majority.” She, of course, must have stopped following the polls awhile ago. Stevie’s numbers started going down since prorogation and he is now down about 10 points since last Fall. I told her his numbers dropped but she didn’t change her tune. She is of the belief Stevie will climb back up. She did, however, ask me to forward her any literature on the subject. Sadly, I think her views reflect most of those of French Quebec society today.
I also tend to wonder if the now dormant separatist movement will make a comeback if there is an election coming soon and Stevie does get his majority? Are the separatists perhaps saving their energy for a potential separatist movement?
Perhaps the separatists just don’t feel that prorogation matters as they’re only interested in le Pays du Quebec?
I think there are only two ways we can perhaps get them out alongside Quebec’s Anglos in the Quebec City and Montreal Rallies come January 23. Our planning meeting spoke of the possibility of getting leaders of Quebec’s largest labor unions. French Quebecers; separatists or not tend to be very pro union.
Another way would be to hit the message home that whether or not you’re separatist; your democratic rights were stripped away just like the rest of us.
There is still time to get French speaking Quebecers to demonstrate alongside the rest of us, be they separatist or not.
To my French speaking readers, I hope you can get your friends, relatives and co workers out come Saturday afternoon, January 23.
[...] French Quebecers Seem to be too Cynical to Care About Prorogation Posted: January 14th, 2010 | Author: ck | Filed under: Local Events, Opinion | Tags: anti-prorogation Rally, CAPP, Facebook, Montreal events, prorogation, Quebec Politics, Voter Apathy | No Comments » Cross posted at Sister Sage’s Musings [...]
The same parliamentary system exists in Quebec… Ignorance of our democratic institutions is also prevalent in English Canada; otherwise the so-called “coalition” that was proposed last year would not have generated such an outcry. Some of us kept repeating that we only elect MPs, not the government, the latter being the business of Parliament – to no avail. The added challenge in Quebec is the language barrier and the growing feeling that they have their own quasi country going there with its national this, national that, and that the federal government doesn’t have an impact on their lives. But I am confident that they will do their part, if not next week, at least in the next election.
ck Reply:
January 14th, 2010 at 10:20 PM
Thank you Francois for your insight, I was for the coalition last year myself and to this day, I find myself still trying to explain how and why that was democratic due to the fact we vote for our MPs; not the PM; that these very same MPs we voted into office would be running the country. Too Bad Iggy didn’t run with it.
This post is crossposted at noprorogue.ca, and I actually had one negative comment; felt like he wished I never wrote it.
I wrote it because I was concerned about the apathy of French Quebecers and how Canadian apathy gets us into trouble; it allows us to be bullied. I would like them to participate with the rest of the country.
They probably do feel as if they have a quasi country given the separatist movement is also pretty much dormant, no matter how Pauline Marois stirs the pot with how the language laws must be tightened: I don’t think anyone is paying much attention to her as much neither.
However, quasi country or not: it is still under Canada; Stevie is still the (runaway) PM (Groan!); therefore, their democratic rights have been trampled on just as much as the rest of the country’s.
Francois, I hope to see you at the Montreal rally or that you will participate in the rally of whatever town you’re in come January 23 and I hope you can get your friends to join you.
Thanks again for your insight.
One of the big problems in Quebec is that outside of Montreal, Quebec City and the Sherbrooke area, people live in small towns or villages and they don’t speak english. The only media they listen to is Quebec media. The majority only read the local papers addressing issues mostly related to their area and the Province of Quebec. The Quebec media is very much separatist. Major Canadian events, like prorogation, probably got one or two articles on those smaller newspapers. So, they are very unaware of what goes on outside of Quebec. Plus they have this “false sense of security” that the Block will look after their interest. They have been very disillusioned about the liberal government, mostly because they are ill informed. The Block doesn’t care about joining the Liberals because their aim is to separate Quebec from Canada. I come from a small village in the Mauricie area. I’ve been in Ottawa over 30 yrs now but still go and visit family & friends. It is very frustrating to witness their lack of knowledge as to what is going on outside of Quebec because they have no way of relating to the rest of Canada. Their perception & beliefs are not based on fact, but on what is told to them by their politicians (who speak english, but who like to keep them ignorant so they can brainwash them) and the Quebec media. Taking them out of their apathy would require Quebec politicians getting engaged and convincing them that this is worth fighting for. Is Jean Charest doing anything? Probably not, even if he is not a separatist…. The only Quebec people that could get engaged in this fight are those that speak english that live in Montreal and may be Sherbrooke area, and of course in the Outaouais. Quebec City is very much a separatist area….. My roots are from Quebec, and yet we speak a different language because they are so ill informed. A very sad state of affairs.
ck Reply:
January 15th, 2010 at 6:59 AM
Thank you Mireille,
I do understand what you’re saying but the coalition of last year did get more response from French Quebec, simply because Duceppe reacted and was going to have some kind of cooperation; French Speaking Quebecers got behind him.
Now with prorogation, Duceppe hardly reacts and French speaking Quebecers are apathetic.
As Josee Legault from Le Voir mentioned once, they seem to be more interested in a mafioso funeral than prorogation.
Quebec City is maybe separatist, but that is where Harpercons made the most in roads in the last election.
I still hope to see them at the Montreal event though.
I hope you will be attending the one in Ottawa or wherever you may be come January 23.