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From London to Ottawa, State terrorism in the history of Quebec: Difference between revisions
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1870-1885. The history which leads to the bloody repression of the second rebellion of the White and the [[Wikipedia:Métis people (Canada)|Métis]] of the North-West, and to the hanging of [[Wikipedia:Louis Riel|Louis Riel]] is a long one. It starts in 1868, when Canada buys from the [[Wikipedia:Hudson's Bay Company|Hudson's Bay Company]] the vast territory which today comprises the three provinces of the West and the territories of the North-West, to make it a colony of Ottawa. The inhabitants who had not been consulted reacted badly to this annexation. The Métis and the White, in majority Catholic and French-speaking, united to request laws and powers which would guarantee them their territorial, linguistic and religious rights. Under the leadership of Louis Riel, they established at [[Red River]] a [[Wikipedia:Provisional government|provisional government]], drew up a "[[Métis Bill of Rights|list of rights]]", requested the opening of negotiations with Ottawa. This first battle, after many violent adventures, lead to the creation of the [[Wikipedia:province of Manitoba|province of Manitoba]], in July 1870. The Quebec population had supported the movement and had required the government of Ottawa that it negotiates with Riel clauses which would add to the list of rights the linguistic and school equality between French and English. The British of the area, supported by the Ontarians did not understand things the same way. There was no question of letting a French-speaking and Catholic province develop in the heart of the Prairies and thus open the door of the West to French Canadian emigration from Quebec. They were opposed to the amnesty of Louis Riel whom they accused of murder, put a price on his head, after he had been exiled. They ceaselessly attacked the Métis who, dispossessed of their land and without a leader, left Manitoba to settle further West where they were victims of the same troubles and persecutions. In 1885, they recalled Louis Riel and the history was repeated. But vis-a-vis an army of 8,000 men supported by guns and machine-guns, the troops of Riel succumbed quickly, the villages and the farms of the Métis were plundered and set on fire and the inhabitants driven back even further West. Riel surrendered, underwent a [[Wikipedia:Trial of Louis Riel|trial]] in front of an English and Protestant jury who found him guilty of [[Wikipedia:High treason in the United Kingdom|high treason]] and condemned him to death by hanging. All this operation once again, beyond its immediate causes, was carried out against French Canada. It was a question of making it clear to the population of Quebec that Westward expansion was to be the fact of English Canada and to serve its sole interests of any and all order. | 1870-1885. The history which leads to the bloody repression of the second rebellion of the White and the [[Wikipedia:Métis people (Canada)|Métis]] of the North-West, and to the hanging of [[Wikipedia:Louis Riel|Louis Riel]] is a long one. It starts in 1868, when Canada buys from the [[Wikipedia:Hudson's Bay Company|Hudson's Bay Company]] the vast territory which today comprises the three provinces of the West and the territories of the North-West, to make it a colony of Ottawa. The inhabitants who had not been consulted reacted badly to this annexation. The Métis and the White, in majority Catholic and French-speaking, united to request laws and powers which would guarantee them their territorial, linguistic and religious rights. Under the leadership of Louis Riel, they established at [[Red River]] a [[Wikipedia:Provisional government|provisional government]], drew up a "[[Métis Bill of Rights|list of rights]]", requested the opening of negotiations with Ottawa. This first battle, after many violent adventures, lead to the creation of the [[Wikipedia:province of Manitoba|province of Manitoba]], in July 1870. The Quebec population had supported the movement and had required the government of Ottawa that it negotiates with Riel clauses which would add to the list of rights the linguistic and school equality between French and English. The British of the area, supported by the Ontarians did not understand things the same way. There was no question of letting a French-speaking and Catholic province develop in the heart of the Prairies and thus open the door of the West to French Canadian emigration from Quebec. They were opposed to the amnesty of Louis Riel whom they accused of murder, put a price on his head, after he had been exiled. They ceaselessly attacked the Métis who, dispossessed of their land and without a leader, left Manitoba to settle further West where they were victims of the same troubles and persecutions. In 1885, they recalled Louis Riel and the history was repeated. But vis-a-vis an army of 8,000 men supported by guns and machine-guns, the troops of Riel succumbed quickly, the villages and the farms of the Métis were plundered and set on fire and the inhabitants driven back even further West. Riel surrendered, underwent a [[Wikipedia:Trial of Louis Riel|trial]] in front of an English and Protestant jury who found him guilty of [[Wikipedia:High treason in the United Kingdom|high treason]] and condemned him to death by hanging. All this operation once again, beyond its immediate causes, was carried out against French Canada. It was a question of making it clear to the population of Quebec that Westward expansion was to be the fact of English Canada and to serve its sole interests of any and all order. | ||
1918. When in 1917, returning from London where he had taken part to a meeting of the English [[Wikipedia:War Cabinet|War Cabinet]], [[Wikipedia:Robert Borden|Robert Borden]], then Prime Minister for the Canadian government, decided to impose [[Wikipedia:Conscription Crisis of 1917|Conscription]], the French Canadians immediately made their fierce opposition to the adoption of such a measure be known. They certainly did not see why they should be used as cannon fodder in the army of Her British Majesty, certainly not because English Canada had committed itself to providing Her soldiers, whereas they had just lost two consecutive battles on the teaching of French in Ontario and the separate schools in Manitoba. Borden then tried to form a government of National Union and to have [[Wikipedia:Wilfrid Laurier|Laurier]] enter it. He refused. The Prime Minister nevertheless carried out his project and formed a cabinet made up of thirteen conservatives and ten liberals including two French Canadians who withdrew soon enough, then he launched elections which took place on December 17. Two weeks before this day, Borden, anxious of the growing opposition to the conscription, both in Canada and in Quebec, published a ministerial decree which exempted the sons of farmers from it. This operation enabled him to win in a clear victory, but not to conceal the opposition to the conscription which, in Quebec, was almost unanimous, very active and sometimes violent. The situation reached its climax in spring of 1918. Following the street arrest, on March 29, in Quebec, of a man who could not provide at once his certificate of exemption from the military service, the revolt of the witnesses spread like a trail of powder and riots which lasted until April 2 exploded. The police force called upon the army, an English Canadian battalion based in Toronto was dispatched to Quebec, the [[martial law]] was applied. In the evening of April first, the soldiers shot on a disarmed crowd, caused five deaths and tens of casualties, in addition to imprisoning a great number of citizens without warrants and guarantees. The State, once more, tried to subdue by force the resistance of the people conquered to its imperialistic policies. | 1918. When in 1917, returning from London where he had taken part to a meeting of the English [[Wikipedia:War Cabinet|War Cabinet]], [[Wikipedia:Robert Borden|Robert Borden]], then Prime Minister for the Canadian government, decided to impose [[Wikipedia:Conscription Crisis of 1917|Conscription]], the French Canadians immediately made their fierce opposition to the adoption of such a measure be known. They certainly did not see why they should be used as cannon fodder in the army of Her British Majesty, certainly not because English Canada had committed itself to providing Her soldiers, whereas they had just lost two consecutive battles on the teaching of French in Ontario and the separate schools in Manitoba. Borden then tried to form a government of National Union and to have [[Wikipedia:Wilfrid Laurier|Laurier]] enter it. He refused. The Prime Minister nevertheless carried out his project and formed a cabinet made up of thirteen conservatives and ten liberals including two French Canadians who withdrew soon enough, then he launched elections which took place on December 17. Two weeks before this day, Borden, anxious of the growing opposition to the conscription, both in Canada and in Quebec, published a ministerial decree which exempted the sons of farmers from it. This operation enabled him to win in a clear victory, but not to conceal the opposition to the conscription which, in Quebec, was almost unanimous, very active and sometimes violent. The situation reached its climax in spring of 1918. Following the street arrest, on March 29, in Quebec, of a man who could not provide at once his certificate of exemption from the military service, the revolt of the witnesses spread like a trail of powder and riots which lasted until April 2 exploded. The police force called upon the army, an English Canadian battalion based in Toronto was dispatched to Quebec, the [[Wikipedia:martial law|martial law]] was applied. In the evening of April first, the soldiers shot on a disarmed crowd, caused five deaths and tens of casualties, in addition to imprisoning a great number of citizens without warrants and guarantees. The State, once more, tried to subdue by force the resistance of the people conquered to its imperialistic policies. | ||
1970. The immediate and official events which started the October Crisis go back lengthily but directly to the birth, at the end of 1950s, of the contemporary independence movement. It is a revolutionary movement which, like similar movements in operation everywhere in the world, since the end of the [[World War II]], invited the people to fight against all forms of subjections: political domination, economic exploitation, social and cultural oppression. The Quebec independence forces of the time conceived independence not only as a political struggle having for essential objective the creation of a Sovereign state, but also as a project of national liberation, i.e. a total questioning of the Canadian colonial system and a taking in hand by the people of all the instruments of their collective development. The realization of such a project required the formation of a consciousness that would be truly national, rather than nationalist, which would bring the conquered then annexed nation to affirm and defend all the attributes of her identity, of her inalienable right to self-determination, as well as to believe in her capacity to assume it. | 1970. The immediate and official events which started the October Crisis go back lengthily but directly to the birth, at the end of 1950s, of the contemporary independence movement. It is a revolutionary movement which, like similar movements in operation everywhere in the world, since the end of the [[Wikipedia:World War II|World War II]], invited the people to fight against all forms of subjections: political domination, economic exploitation, social and cultural oppression. The Quebec independence forces of the time conceived independence not only as a political struggle having for essential objective the creation of a Sovereign state, but also as a project of national liberation, i.e. a total questioning of the Canadian colonial system and a taking in hand by the people of all the instruments of their collective development. The realization of such a project required the formation of a consciousness that would be truly national, rather than nationalist, which would bring the conquered then annexed nation to affirm and defend all the attributes of her identity, of her inalienable right to self-determination, as well as to believe in her capacity to assume it. | ||
The stakes of the battle thus proved to be colossal. Indeed, the independence of Quebec as an essential precondition to a true national liberation objectively threatens the capitalist interests of the Canadian upper middle class whose Canadian State is not only the representative but, more basically, their institutional core and their unconditional supporter (3). Initially, it is therefore a question of fissuring this core. All the organizations which made up the independence movement, pursued this goal. In spite of the diversity of speeches which they held and the strategies they adopt, inspired by more or less different ideologies and social interests, they were thus attacking with the same determination the institutions, the symbols and the corporations of this dominant class which then owned almost the totality of the natural, financial and industrial resources of Quebec and was thus in control of its economic development and its political organization, in addition to imposing on the Quebec labour their language and their working conditions. Engaged in a fight to put and end to [[Wikipedia:colonialism|colonialism]] and its after-effects, the movements and parties engaged in the fight for independence based their action on the need for politicizing and mobilizing the people, conscious that their determination constituted the only force likely to reverse the established powers. All were animated by this same democratic concern, including the FLQ. However, only this movement acted in clandestinity and had recourse to violent actions (if one excludes ten members of the [[ALQ]] and the [[ARQ]] whose existence was of short duration and whose most visible actions were confused in the public opinion with those of the FLQ), all the others always had solely recourse to legal means, although non conventional, to convince the inhabitants of Quebec of the need for independence and the urgency to realize it. | The stakes of the battle thus proved to be colossal. Indeed, the independence of Quebec as an essential precondition to a true national liberation objectively threatens the capitalist interests of the Canadian upper middle class whose Canadian State is not only the representative but, more basically, their institutional core and their unconditional supporter (3). Initially, it is therefore a question of fissuring this core. All the organizations which made up the independence movement, pursued this goal. In spite of the diversity of speeches which they held and the strategies they adopt, inspired by more or less different ideologies and social interests, they were thus attacking with the same determination the institutions, the symbols and the corporations of this dominant class which then owned almost the totality of the natural, financial and industrial resources of Quebec and was thus in control of its economic development and its political organization, in addition to imposing on the Quebec labour their language and their working conditions. Engaged in a fight to put and end to [[Wikipedia:colonialism|colonialism]] and its after-effects, the movements and parties engaged in the fight for independence based their action on the need for politicizing and mobilizing the people, conscious that their determination constituted the only force likely to reverse the established powers. All were animated by this same democratic concern, including the FLQ. However, only this movement acted in clandestinity and had recourse to violent actions (if one excludes ten members of the [[ALQ]] and the [[ARQ]] whose existence was of short duration and whose most visible actions were confused in the public opinion with those of the FLQ), all the others always had solely recourse to legal means, although non conventional, to convince the inhabitants of Quebec of the need for independence and the urgency to realize it. | ||