I was shaped as a young person in what I came to understand, was a crucible of conflicting visions of those who did not want to be a part of this great nation and those who very much saw my home province of Quebec as a legitimate part of confederation. I was raised by a very much Federalist minded Mother & Father, who were born in Toronto, Ontario. I was the only member of my family who was born in Quebec.
Quebec convulsed in spasms, it did not slowly evolve into what it is today. I lived through two great convulsions in Quebec. The first convulsion was the period ranging from 1969 to 1972. The second great convulsion came in the years from 1977 to 1995.
In the first convulsion I was just entering the English language Protestant Confessional School system. Today, Quebec has abolished the confessional school system. Now we have school systems based on language only (Like everything else you can think of !). It is entirely a tragedy that all paradigms governing Quebec culture are measured by language to the exclusion of all other practical factors. As a young child all I saw was one big change after another followed by absolutely no explanations ! When I was in grade one, we would start off the school day by singing God Save the Queen, and O' Canada, our national anthem. By the time I was at grade three, we were told we would no longer sing God Save the Queen, but we weren't told why. By 1972 - maybe as late as 1973, we also stopped singing the national anthem each school morning. Once again, no explanation was offered to us that I can remember as to why these common practices (which are still observed in elementary schools across Canada) were no longer in observance. Disgusting, perverted, and sad actually !
The second great convulsion I lived through was Camille Laurin's infamous Bill 101, which I seem to remember was introduced when I was 13 years old and in my first year of High School in Grade 8 (in Quebec at the time, Grade 7 was still considered part of the elementary school system). Along with Bill 101 came the equally offensive Office de la langue Francais, which got the nick name amongst Quebec Anglophones as The Tongue Troopers ! These people enforce Bill 101 with an iron fist ! You have these little French speaking Quebec racist xenophobes who sneak around taking pictures of local English business signs (Mostly local merchants) and make snitch phone calls to the Office de la Langue Francaise and before you know it an inspector is down measuring how high the English letters versus how high the French letters are on a sign. This usually results in a hefty fine against the English language merchant. Net result = the oppression of another English speaking person !
Remember the neverendum of 1995 ? (referendum no 2 on Quebec Separation). We called it the "neverendum," because it was a cynical attempt to continue the referendum process until the nationalists in Quebec got the answer they wanted. Even with the incredible ballot box stuffing and open fraud in that second referendum, the answer still came out "NO" by a narrow majority. It was so beautiful to see the giant rally organized at the last minute in Montreal whereby anyone who wanted to come to Quebec from the rest of Canada to personally tell Quebecers how much they were loved and appreciated could board an Air Canada jet (Free of Charge !) or a bus (Free again !) or jump in their Winabego, or van, or car, and high tail it up river to Montreal before the referendum. Remember the giant flag moving over the crowd on that fateful day of days ? I was under that flag ! I helped move it along ! I was at ground zero on that wonderful day in 1995. I remember driving downtown into the city of Montreal on Hwy 20 (The 401 in Quebec). There were licence plates from all over Canada ! There were even plates from different states in the US ! Folks were leaning out of bus windows and waving Canadian flags and blowing kisses to passers by on the sidewalks of the city ! It was a happening, as they would say in the 60's ! It was Quebec's political Woodstock and it really blew me away ! It still blows me away when I think about it ! I remember how many Quebecers in Montreal reacted with angry shouts and swear words and much cursing at folks. Many Quebecois felt scared and intimidated by this sort of invasion from Anglo Canada. Some Quebecers were very surprised to see that people from as far away as The Yukon actually had an opinion and cared about them.
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