Con arguments

From Independence of Québec
Jump to navigation Jump to search

"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.

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...

$$ = 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...

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

Websites

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.

Orangeism

Yes, that thing still exists...

  • British America Orangeism
  • Orangenet.org: Canada
  • Canadian Orange Historical Site
  • Irish Secret Societies in Mid-Nineteenth Century Rural Quebec
  • Orangeism - The Canadian Scene A Brief Historical Sketch
  • The Daily Orange: Quebec Secedes from Planet Earth *
  • = Putting aside the superiority complex issue and the grammatically incorrect French, we find this one quite funny. ;-)

See also