English speakers for the independence of Québec: Difference between revisions
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[[Image:William-lovett.jpg|thumb|William Lovett]]William Lovett, one of the founders of the Chartist movement, wrote an address to the people of Canada in support of the efforts to resist the unconstitutional decision of the British government to take money from the Provincial Chest without the assent of the Legislative Assembly of Lower Canada. | [[Image:William-lovett.jpg|thumb|William Lovett]]William Lovett, one of the founders of the Chartist movement, wrote an address to the people of Canada in support of the efforts to resist the unconstitutional decision of the British government to take money from the Provincial Chest without the assent of the Legislative Assembly of Lower Canada. | ||
* Read ''[[The Address of the London Working Men's Association to the People of Canada]]'' (1837) | * Read ''[[The Address of the London Working Men's Association to the People of Canada]]'' (1837) |
Revision as of 17:05, 6 August 2007
"Is Québécois who wants to be." - René Lévesque (French: Est Québécois qui veut l'être.)
Throughout history, a considerable number of native speakers of the English tongue have come to understand, love and identify with Quebec in the way the majority of Quebecers do. Often through assimilation, but not always, numerous Irish, Scots, English, Americans and Canadians have come to see themselves as full members of a French-speaking society that has always, in spite of the colonization context, treated immigrants of British origin or descent with the respect all human beings deserve.
Quebec nationalists are engaged in a battle that is directed not against individual English speakers, not against English speaking nations, not against the English language, but against the injustice of imperialism and colonialism. It just happens that in Quebec's case, the colonizing power was British and later British Canadian. On every occasion we have, we also denounce the imperialism and colonialism of all other powers. The only relations that we accept between nations are the ones based on mutual respect, equality and fraternity.
Among those people of foreign origins who joined Quebecers in their fight for independence, natives of the British isles and the various regions of the world colonized by the British government, account for a very important part.
Below is a list of some of these courageous individuals who sided with the truth, justice and humanity, even if it meant being called traitors by ignorant people or in some cases people whose hearts were filled with hatred of all things remotely French or Catholic. Better to be wrongfully taken for a traitor than to be a traitor to humanity an to one's own conscience.
Contemporary
Robin Philpot
Biography in Wikipedia: Robin Philpot
Native of Thunder Bay in Ontario, author, journalist and translator. Lived in Africa where he was teaching history and moved to Quebec in 1974. Was a Parti québécois candidate for the Saint-Henri-Sainte-Anne riding.
Jane Jacobs
Biography in Wikipedia: Jane Jacobs
A native of Scranton, Pennsylvania, urban planner and author. Supported the Sovereingty-Association movement founded by René Lévesque and later the PQ.
David Levine
Biography in Wikipedia: David Levine
Native of Quebec, former PQ member of the National Assembly.
David Payne
Biography in Wikipedia: David Payne
Native of Quebec, political counsellor.
Calvin Veltman
Biography in Wikipedia: Calvin Veltman
Native of the United States, professor at Université du Québec à Montréal.
Robert Mckenzie
Biography in Wikipedia: Robert Mckenzie
Retired journalist
Paul Unterberg
Biography in Wikipedia: Paul Unterberg
PQ candidate
Mary Soderstrom
Biography in Wikipedia: Mary Soderstrom
Author of The Words on the Wall: Robert Nelson and the Rebellion of 1837
19th century
Great Britain
William Lovett
Biography in Wikipedia: William Lovett
William Lovett, one of the founders of the Chartist movement, wrote an address to the people of Canada in support of the efforts to resist the unconstitutional decision of the British government to take money from the Provincial Chest without the assent of the Legislative Assembly of Lower Canada.
Lower Canada
Wolfred Nelson
Biography in Wikipedia: Wolfred Nelson
Born in 1792 in Montreal, he studied medicine. In 1827, he was elected Member of Parliament, but gave up active politics in 1830, without disavowing his reformist allegiance. He became a patriot leader in the region of the Richelieu river valley, and supported the use of arms at the Assemblée des Six-Comtés in 1837. He lead the patriots of St-Denis to victory, and was arrested soon after. Exiled to the Bermudas in 1838, he came back to Montreal in 1842, and in 1844 was elected to the new Parliament of Canada. In 1854, he became mayor of Montreal. He died in June 1863.
Robert Nelson
Biography in Wikipedia: Robert Nelson
Born in 1794 in Montreal, brother of Wolfred. He also studied medicine, and obtained great fame as a surgeon. He was elected Member of Parliament in 1827, and although he did not take part in the 1837 rebellion, he was imprisoned for it, and released thereafter. He organized the invasions of 1838 from the United States and participated to both armed conflicts. In February, as provisional President of the Republic, he distributes a Declaration of Independence of Lower Canada. After the failure of the second rebellion he flees to the United States again, where he practised medicine. He died in New York in 1873.
Edmund-Bailey O'Callaghan
Biography in Wikipedia: Edmund-Bailey O'Callaghan
Born in Ireland in 1797, he studied in Paris and came to Canada in 1823. He began practising medicine from 1827. A close friend of Papineau, he became the editor of the Montreal Vindicator in 1832, and showed to be an irreducible adversary of Lord Gosford and the status quo. In 1837, a mandate of arrest was emitted against him, and he sought refuge at St Denis, then crossed the American border with Papineau. Later, he became secretary-archivist of the State of New York, and died there in 1880.
- A Biographical Sketch of the Hon. Louis Joseph Papineau, Speaker of the House of Assembly of Lower Canada (1838)
- Dr. Edmund Bailey O'Callaghan, His Early Years in Medicine, Montreal, 1823-1828, by Maureen Slattery Durley (1980)
Jocelyn Waller
Biography in Wikipedia: Jocelyn Waller
Editor of the The Canadian Spectator.
Daniel Tracey
Biography in Wikipedia: Daniel Tracey
Born in Ireland in 1794, he studied at the Trinity College in Dublin, and later presumably at the Royal College of Surgeons. He practiced medecine and surgery in his home country. He arrived in Lower Canada in 1825 and settled in Montreal. On December 12, 1828, he founded the bi-weekly newspaper The Irish Vindicator and and Canada General Advertiser which later became the The Vindicator and Canada General Advertiser. In 1832, after writing that the Legislative Council was a public nuisance, he was arrested for diffamation along with Ludger Duvernay of La Minerve and was sent to prison from January 17 to February 25. He was elected in the Montréal-Ouest riding on May 22, 1832. He died in service on July 18, 1832 at the age of 38, during the cholera epidemic.
- Dr. Daniel Tracey, A pioneer worker for responsible government in Canada, by Emmet J. Mullally, M.D. (1934)
Thomas Storrow Brown
Biography in Wikipedia: Thomas Storrow Brown
Born in New Brunswick, speaker, journalist. He was General at the Battle of St-Charles. He was wounded during the street fight between the Fils de la liberté and the Doric Club.
See also
- Other English-speaking friends of Québec
- Meeting with English-speaking sovereignists. Québec, my country
- Norman Delisle, Robert McKenzie fait ses adieux au journalisme, in Trente, Fédération professionnelle des journalistes du Québec, February 2002