Con arguments

"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 of the world, no longer only from Europe, but soon of Asia, of which the overpopulation is five times more numerous 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 truth, 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 to finance its coast-t-coast nation-building project and fight Quebec's conflicting national aspirations. According to the adversaries of the independence, the Quebec polity, whose origin goes back to at least 1663, would be destined to remain the colony of another State forever.

• 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 counter arguments, some important players in the camp opposed to the independence of Québec 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 particularily hard to refute, they have chosen to work around them and refute other arguments instead. How hard is it to refute arguments that you have crafted yourself?

Favorite targets

• PQ Leaders René Lévesque, Jacques Parizeau, Lucien Bouchard, Bernard Landry
• 19th century Conservative Catholic nationalist Lionel Groulx
• 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
• Quebec's institutions, its representative democracy, its language policy, its immigration policy, its economic policy
• Quebec's worker movement, its pro-independence unions, its spirit of solidarity

Techniques

Political warfare in its modern incarnation...

• 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.

Useful Patriots

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

• Diane Francis
• Howard Galganov
• Bill Johnson
• Mordecai Richler

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

Websites

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

Late denunciation

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 fascists used to spread hatred of the Jews in 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

There are some legitimate and valid objections to the independence of Québec. These were most the most part formulated by Québec nationalists themselves. In the decades old dialogue between nationalists wishing to reform the constitution of Canada and those who opted for secession, we believe that all important questions were properly addressed. Visitors 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