Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-hfldf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-01T05:08:56.992Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Social Change and Ethnic Nationalism: An Historical Analysis of the Separatist Movement in Quebec

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 June 2009

Rudy Fenwick
Affiliation:
The University of Akron

Extract

Linguistic conflict between French and English-speaking Canadians has been an enduring feature of Canadian society since the British conquest of New France (Quebec) in 1759. This conflict has taken a variety of forms and revolved around a number of issues in the past two hundred years, ranging from the question of religious and linguistic civil rights to economic inequality and economic dominance. The latest and most significant manifestation of English-French conflict has been the emergence in the mid-1960s of a viable movement for political independence for the predominantly French-speaking province of Quebec.

Type
Ethnic Separatism
Copyright
Copyright © Society for the Comparative Study of Society and History 1981

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Hechter, Michael, Internal Colonialism (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1975).Google Scholar

2 Park, Robert, “The Nature of Race Relations,” in Race Relations and the Race Problem: A Definition and Analysis, Thompson, Edgar T., ed. (Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 1939), pp. 245.Google Scholar

3 Horowitz, Donald L., “Multiracial Politics in the New States: Toward a Theory of Conflict,” in Issues in Comparative Politics, Jackson, R. and Stein, M., eds. (Homewood, 111.: The Dorsey Press, 1971), p. 161Google Scholar; Melson, R. and Wolpe, H., “Modernization and the Politics of Communalism: A Theoretical Perspective,” American Political Science Review 64 (1970): 1109–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

4 Melson, and Wolpe, , “The Politics of Communalism,” pp. 1109–21.Google Scholar

5 Hechter, , Internal Colonialism, pp. 3033Google Scholar; Walton, John, “Urban Hierarchies and Patterns of Development in Latin America: Theoretical Bases for a New Research Agenda,” in Current Perspective in Latin American Research, Portes, Alejandro and Browning, Harley, eds. (Austin Texas: Institute of Latin American Studies of the University of Texas, 1976), pp. 4370. See esp. pp. 5662Google Scholar. Also see Blauner, Robert, “Internal Colonialism and the Ghetto Revolt,” Social Problems 16 (Spring 1969): 393408CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Casanova, Pablo Gonzalez, “Internal Colonialism and National Development,” in Latin American Radicalism, Horowitz, I.L., Castro, J.de, and Gerassi, J., eds. (New York: Vintage Books, 1969).Google Scholar

6 Horowitz, “Multiracial Politics in New States”; Melson and Wolpe, “The Politics of Communalism”; Chirot, Daniel, Social Change in the Twentieth Century (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc., 1977)Google Scholar; Wallerstein, Immanuel, “Semi-Peripheral Countries and the Contemporary World Crisis,“ Theory and Society 3 (1976): 461–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

7 Besides the 81 percent of Quebec's approximately six million people for whom French is the mother tongue, 13 percent listed English and 6 percent listed another language as their mother tongue. Outside Montreal the proportion of the population claiming French ancestry rises to well over 90 percent, and 77 percent speak only French. In the rest of Canada these percentages are reversed. French is the mother tongue of only 6.6 percent of the people. These figures are from the 1971 census of Canada.

8 Loon, Richard Van and Whittington, Michael, The Canadian Political System: Environment, Structure, Process (Toronto: McGraw-Hill, Ryerson, 1976).Google Scholar

9 Smiley, Donald V., Canada in Question (Toronto: McGraw-Hill, Ryerson, 1972), pp. 144–45Google Scholar. See also Pious, Richard, “Canada and the Crisis of Quebec,” Journal of International Affairs 27 (1973): 5365Google Scholar; Milner, S.H. and Milner, H., The Decolonization of Quebec (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1973)Google Scholar; Rioux, Marcel, Quebec in Question (Toronto: James Lewis and Samuel, 1971).Google Scholar

10 Ossenberg, Richard, “Social Pluralism in Quebec: Continuity, Change and Conflict,” in Canadian Society: Pluralism, Change and Conflict, Ossenberg, R., ed. (Scarborough, Ontario: Prentice-Hall, 1971), pp. 111122)Google Scholar; Ossenberg, Richard, “The Conquest Revisited: Another Look at Canadian Dualism,” The Canadian Review of Sociology and Anthropology Special Issue (1974): 123–40Google Scholar; Clark, S.D., The Developing Canadian Community (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1962), pp. 2040.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

11 Ossenberg, , “The Conquest Revisited,” p. 127.Google Scholar

12 Ibid., p. 133; Ossenberg, , “Social Pluralism in Quebec,” p. 114Google Scholar. See also Coffin, Victor, The Province of Quebec and the Early American Revolution (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1896), pp. 440–48Google Scholar; Brunet, Michel, La Presence anglaise et les canadiens (Montreal: n.p., 1958).Google Scholar

13 Ossenberg, , “Social Pluralism in Quebec,” p. 114Google Scholar; Ossenberg, , “The Conquest Revisited,” p. 133Google Scholar; Coffin, , The Province of Quebec, pp. 440–48Google Scholar; Brunet, , La Presence anglaise, p. 193.Google Scholar

14 Spry, Graham, “Canada: Notes on Two Ideas of Nation in Confrontation,” Journal of Contemporary History 6 (1971): 188CrossRefGoogle Scholar. See also Wade, Mason, The French Canadians, 1760–1945 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1955)Google Scholar; Kwavnick, D., “The Roots of French-Canadian Discontent,” Canadian Journal of Economics and Political Science 71 (11 1965): 513–15.Google Scholar

15 Ossenberg, “Social Pluralism in Quebec”; Ossenberg, “The Conquest Revisited”; Kenneth McRae, “Consociationalism and the Canadian Political System”, and Guindon, Hubert, “Two Cultures: An Essay on Nationalism, Class, and Ethnic Tension,” in The Canadian Political Process, Kruhlak, Orest et at, eds. (Toronto: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1970), p. 88.Google Scholar

16 Ormsby, William, “The Providence of Canada: The Emergence of Consociational Politics,” in Consociational Democracy: Political Accommodation in Segmented Societies, McRae, Kenneth, ed. (Toronto: McLelland and Stewart, 1974), pp. 269–74Google Scholar. See also S. J. R. Noel, “Consociational Democracy and Canadian Federalism,” in the same volume. It should not be implied by this discussion, however, that all French Canadians at all times accepted this system of elite accommodations or that this system was always successful in reducing conflict. As Bonenfaut and Falardeau point out, the system of accommodations led to a gradual identification of theFrench Canadian elite (at least those outside the Church) with the British ruling group, which meant an ever-widening gap between the French Canadian rural and urban masses and their leaders. It was partly in response to this collaboration between English and French Canadian elites that the Papineau rebellions broke out in 1837–1838. To the extent that these rebellions had a focused target, it was not only British rule, but also the French Canadian elite. Though the rebellions failed to destroy the French-English elite accommodation system, they were responsible for the Lord Durham Report, which in turn led to political reforms and eventually to Confederation. See Bonenfaut, Yves and Falardeau, Jean C., “Cultural and Political Implications of French Canadian Nationalism,” in French Canadian Nationalism, Cook, Ramsey, ed. (Toronto: Macmillan, 1969), pp. 2021Google Scholar. See also Ossenberg, , “The Conquest Revisited,” p. 127.Google Scholar

17 Loon, Van and Whittington, , Canadian Political System, p. 60Google Scholar; Falardeau, Jean C., “The Role and Importance of the Church in French Canada,” in French Canadian Society, Rioux, Marcel andMartin, Yves, eds. (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1964)Google Scholar; Rioux, Quebec in Question.

18 Loon, Van and Whittington, , Canadian Political System, p. 65.Google Scholar

19 Ibid., pp. 66–67.

21 Guindon, , “Two Cultures,” p. 90.Google Scholar

22 Sloan, Thomas, Quebec: The Not So Quiet Revolution (Toronto: Ryerson, 1965), p. 49Google ScholarPubMed; Loon, Van and Whittington, , Canadian Political System, p. 63Google Scholar; Cook, Ramsey, The Maple Leaf Forever (Toronto: Macmillan, 1967), p. 3.Google Scholar

23 McRae, , “Consociationalism and the Canadian Political System,” p. 243Google Scholar; Van Loon and Whittington, Canadian Political System; Kwavnick, “The Roots of French Canadian Discontent”; Guindon, “Two Cultures”; Spry, “Canada: Notes on Two Ideas of Nation in Confrontation. ”

24 Guindon, Huber, The Modernization of Quebec and the Legitimacy of the Federal State (Toronto: Macmillan, 1978).Google Scholar

25 Joy, R., Languages in Conflict (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1970)Google Scholar. See also Guindon, Modernization of Quebec; Lieberson, Stanley, Language and Ethnic Relations (New York: John Wylie and Sons, 1970).Google Scholar

26 Pious, , “Canada and the Crisis of Quebec,” pp. 5556Google Scholar; Van Loon and Whittington, Canadian Political System.

27 Guindon, “Two Cultures”; Pious, “Canada and the Crisis of Quebec”; Falardeau, “The Role and Importance of the Church”; Smiley, Canada in Question; Dumont, Femand, The Vigil of Quebec (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1971).Google Scholar

28 Smiley, , Canada in Question, p. 146.Google Scholar

29 Ibid.; Melson and Wolpe, “Modernization and the Politics of Communalism”; Horowitz, “Multiracial Politics in New States”; Guindon, Hubert, “Social Unrest, Social Class and Quebec's Bureaucratic Revolution,” Queen's Quarterly 71 (Summer 1964): 150–62Google Scholar; Guindon, Modernization of Quebec; Pious, “Canada and the Crisis of Quebec”; Ossenberg, “The Conquest Revisited”; Sloan, Quebec: The Not So Quiet Revolution.

30 Smiley, Canada in Question.

31 Ibid., p. 145; Guindon, “Two Cultures”; Kwavnick, “The Roots of French Canadian Discontent.”

32 Smiley, Canada in Question; Guindon, “Social Unrest”; idem, “Two Cultures”; Pious, “Canada and the Crisis of Quebec.”

33 Bourque, Gillen and Laurin-Freuette, Jean, “Social Classes and Nationalist Ideologies in Quebec, 1760–1970,” in Capitalism and the National Question in Canada, Teeple, Gary, ed. (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1972), p. 195Google Scholar; Guindon, “Social Unrest”; idem, “Two Cultures”; Pious, “Canada and the Crisis of Quebec”; Van Loon and Whittington, Canadian Political System.

34 Bourque and Laurin-Freuette, “Social Classes”; Nevitte, Neil, “New Nationalism and Religion: The Case of Quebec” (Ph.D. diss., Duke University, 1978).Google Scholar

35 Spry, , “Canada: Notes on Two Ideas of Nation in Confrontation,” p. 185Google Scholar; Smiley, , Canada in Question, pp. 147–58Google Scholar; Van Loon and Whittington, Canadian Political System.

36 Smiley, , Canada in Question, pp. 147–48Google Scholar; Spry, , “Canada: Notes on Two Ideas of Nation in Confrontation,” p. 185Google Scholar; Guindon, “Two Cultures”; Van Loon and Whittington, Canadian Political System.

37 Report of the Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism, Book III (Ottawa: Queen's Printer of Canada, 1969).Google Scholar

38 Loon, Van and Whittington, , Canadian Political System, p. 61Google Scholar, Milner, and Milner, , The Decolonization of Quebec, p. 53Google Scholar. The figures on unemployment for 1971 are from the Canada Yearbook, 1971 (Ottawa: Statistics Canada, 1972).Google Scholar

39 Smiley, , Canada in Question, p. 149.Google Scholar

40 Loon, Van and Whittington, , Canadian Political System, p. 205:97Google Scholar; McKinsey, Lauren, “Dimensions of National Political Integration and Disintegration: The Case of Quebec Separatism, 1960–1975,” Comparative Political Studies 9 (10 1976): 341.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

41 Smiley, Donald, “The Rowell-Sirois Report, Provincial Autonomy, and Postwar Canadian Federalism,” Canadian Journal of Economics and Political Science 28 (02 1963): 5469CrossRefGoogle Scholar

42 McKinsey, , “Dimensions of National Political Integration,” pp. 342–44Google Scholar; Smiley, , Canada in Question, pp. 113–14Google Scholar; Van Loon and Whittington, Canadian Political System.

43 Loon, Van and Whittington, , Canadian Political System, p. 221Google Scholar; Smiley, , Canada in Question, p. 343.Google Scholar

44 McKinsey, , “Dimensions of National Political Integration,” p. 344.Google Scholar

45 Smiley, , Canada in Question, p. 119Google Scholar; McKinsey, , “Dimensions of National Political Integration,” p. 343Google Scholar; Van Loon and Whittington, Canadian Political System.

46 McKinsey, , “Dimensions of National Political Integration,” p. 343.Google Scholar

47 Guindon, Modernization of Quebec; Joy, Languages in Conflict.

48 Herbert Charbonneau, Jacques Henripin, and Jacques Legare, Le Devoir (Montreal), 4 November 1969, cited in Smiley, Canada in Question. Such estimates were based on the assumption of equal birthrates between francophones and anglophones in Quebec and a net immigration of 30,000 per year into the province, of which 15 percent were francophones. If such assumptions were to hold, the percentage of francophones in Quebec would decline to 71.6 percent, and in the Montreal areas to 52.7 percent by the year 2000.

49 Lieberson, Language and Ethnic Relations; Joy, Languages in Conflict.

50 Loon, Van and Whittington, , Canadian Political System, pp. 7374.Google Scholar

51 Ibid., p. 73.

52 Smiley, Canada in Question; Guindon, “Two Cultures”; idem, Modernization of Quebec; Kwavnick, “The Roots of French Canadian Discontent.”

53 Smiley, , Canada in Question, pp. 152, 156.Google Scholar

54 McKinsey, , “Dimensions of National Political Integration,” p. 345.Google Scholar

55 Smiley, , Canada in Question, p. 156Google Scholar; Van Loon and Whittington, Canadian Political System; Pious, “Canada and the Crisis of Quebec”; McKinsey, , “Dimensions of National Political Integration,” pp. 347–50.Google Scholar

56 Pinard, Maurice and Hamilton, Richard, “The Patri Quebecois Comes to Power: An Analysis of the 1976 Quebec Election,” (Paper presented to the Canadian Sociology and Anthropology Association Annual Meetings, Fredericton, New Brunswick, June 1977).Google Scholar

57 Breton, Raymond, “The Socio-Political Dynamics of the October Events,” Canadian Review of Sociology and Anthropology 9 (02 1972): 3356CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Rocher, Guy, “The Quiet Revolution and Revolutionary Movements among Quebec French Canadians” (Paper presented at the Bicentennial Conference on “Revolution and Evolution,”Duke University, Durham, North Carolina,October 1976).Google Scholar