Con arguments

"I see in the not remote distance one great nationality bound like the shield of Achilles, by the blue rim of ocean ... I see within the ground of that shield the peaks of the western mountains and the crests of the eastern waves." - Thomas D'Arcy McGee, 1860

"Very blind are those who speak of the creation of a new nationality, strong and harmonious, on the northern bank of the St. Lawrence and the Great Lakes, and who are unaware of or denounce the major and providential fact that this nationality is already very well formed, that it is great, and growing unceasingly; that it cannot be confined to its current limits; that it has an irresistible force of expansion; that in the future it will be more and more made up of immigrants coming from all the countries in the world, no longer only from Europe, but soon from Asia, whose overpopulation is five times more numerous [than that of Europe] and no longer has any other outfall than America; composed, says I, of all races of men, who, with their thousand religious beliefs, large mix of errors and truths, are all pushed by the Providence towards this common rendez-vous that will melt in unity and fraternity all of the human family." -- Louis-Joseph Papineau, 1867

Government of Canada

From United Empire, to United Dominion, to United Canada.

Not only is the federal government denying the very existence of the Québec political nation since 1867, it is also shamelessly using Quebecers' own tax money 1) to finance its coast-to-coast nation-building project and 2) to fight Quebecers' conflicting national aspirations. According to the adversaries of independence, the Quebec polity, whose origin goes back to at least 1663 when it became a royal province of the Kingdom of France, would be destined to remain the province of another State forever, yesterday France and Great Britain, today federal Canada.

• Government of Canada, a nice bilingual façade to everything it does
• Canadian Heritage Department, putting the federal state's flag all over Quebec for free
• The History of Canada's Constitutional Development, according to the Department of Intergovernmental affairs
• The Liberal Party of Canada, controlled a majority of the seats at the federal House of Commons for over 75 years out of 139, with an average of less than 45% of the popular vote.
• Conservative Party of Canada, controlled a majority of the seats at the federal House of Commons for over 44 years out of 139, with an average of less than 45% of the popular vote.

Various organizations

These organizations are actively engaged in the nation-building project of the federal State, project which implies a battling against that old Quebec national sentiment that just won't die...

• Canadian Unity Council $$
• The Centre for Research and Information on Canada, under the auspice of the Canadian Unity Council
• The Dominion Institute, unity of the Dominion (at least they are not hiding the real name of this Canada)
• Uni.ca - Canadian Unity, "world's leader in the dissemination of information about Canadian unity", no less...
• Great Canadian Questions, funded by the Dominion Institute
• Operation Dialogue, a dialogue excluding those heretics who want to modify the constitution of Canada... linked to the Dominion Institute again

$$ = Funded by the Government of Canada, therefore in part by Quebecers' own tax money

Québec Bashing

Failing to come up with valid arguments to counter those put forward by the secessionists, some influential factions in the Unionist camp have adopted the good old strategy of misrepresenting their adversaries' arguments and intentions to better win against them. The arguments of the right to self-determination and cultural rights of peoples being particularly hard to refute, they have chosen to work around them and refute other arguments instead. How hard is it to refute invalid arguments that you have crafted yourself?

Techniques

Political warfare, in its modern incarnation, still uses the same old tricks...

• Straw man
• Demonization
• argument from repetition (argumentum ad nauseam)
• Appeal to fear (argumentum in terrorem)
• false dilemma
• Appeal to authority (argumentum ad verecundiam)
• Appeal to the majority (Argumentum ad populum)
• Personal attack (argumentum ad personam)
• False analogy
• False attribution
• Faulty generalization
• Fallacy of the single cause
• Red herring
• Etc.

Favorite targets

• Parti Québécois leaders René Lévesque, Jacques Parizeau, Lucien Bouchard and Bernard Landry
• 19th century Conservative Catholic nationalist Lionel Groulx accused of antisemitism
• Free thinker and social democrat Yves Michaud who dared publicly state that Groulx was not antisemitic
• Quebec's national symbols, its flag, its national holiday, its heroes
• Quebec's institutions, its elected representatives, its language policy, its immigration policy, its economic policy
• Quebec's workers movement, its pro-independence unions, its spirit of solidarity

Examples

Newspaper articles

• Get under the desk by Jan Wong, The Globe and Mail, September 16, 2006
• The rise of Quebecistan by Barbara Kay, National Post, Wednesday, August 09, 2006
• Quebec Liberated Itself Into a Backwater by James P. Pinkerton in Newsday, July 31, 2001
• The St-Jean-Baptiste parade by Graeme Decarie, The World Today, 27 avril 1999
• Quebec Nationalism in a Nutshell, by Roland Barphe
• More...

Websites

• Quebec Exposed
• Mr. Dowling's Electronic Passport
• Wednesday-Night.com - Separatist Notes
• Fighting Quebec Separatism
• Canada is a Real Country!
• More...

Useful patriots

Just a few individuals who have found a way to make a living by spitting on imaginary Quebec separatist monsters who eat children alive and worship Adolph Hitler.

• Diane Francis, author of Fighting for Canada, 1996 ISBN 1550137964
• Howard Galganov, author of Bastards, 1998 ISBN 0-9684177-0-1
• Bill Johnson, author of Anglophobie Made in Québec, 1991 ISBN 2-7604-0399-8
• Mordecai Richler, author of Oh Canada! Oh Quebec! Requiem for a Divided Country, 1992 ISBN 0-14-016817-6

Note: Mordecai Richler is also the author of excellent fiction works unlike the others.

Late denunciation and response

Many of us didn't fail to notice it. The constant depiction of Quebec nationalists, sovereignists, francophones in general, or even all Quebecers, as morally inferior to Canadians, incapable of governing themselves, less progressive and liberal, responsible for Canada's problems, is fundamentally the same process that was used to spread hatred of the Jews in 19th and 20th century Europe.

• "Some Racist Slips about Quebec in English Canada Between 1995 and 1998" by Maryse Potvin in Canadian Ethnic Studies, volume XXXII, issue 2, 2000, pages 1-26
• Bashing Québec fashionable in anglo media, by Michel David, The Gazette, Friday 21 April 2000
• Oh Canada, Oh Quebec, Oh Richler, by Ray Conlogue, Globe & Mail, June 26, 2002
• The Black Book of English Canada, by Normand Lester, Toronto, McClelland & Stewart, 2002, 296 pages ISBN 077102259X
• Harper complains to Globe about Jan Wong column, Canadian Press, September 20, 2006

Legitimate and valid objections?

Are there legitimate and valid objections to the independence of Québec? Of course, in theory. These objections were mostly formulated by Québec nationalists themselves. Indeed, in the decades old dialogue between nationalists wishing to reform the constitution of Canada and those who have opted for secession, we believe that all important questions were properly addressed. In the end it becomes a question of self-confidence, self-respect and values.

Human dignity is the key word.

Visitors searching for answers to valid and reasoned objections should be able to find what they are looking for here:

• Frequently asked questions

See also

• A few important facts
• Myths and fallacies about Québec
• Common declaration of sovereignist and federalist intellectuals from Canada and Québec, by the Intellectuels pour la souveraineté (IPSO)