Rick, like you, I was more offended by the initial "we" than by the last
remarks (or at least as offended); in fact, that initial "we" is the more
dangerous precisely because it was not what drew fire in Quebec. I have
heard Monique Simard speak in precisely this same way, as well as various
other public figures of significant standing.
It also happens to be true that this "we-ness" does, in other
circumstances, allow for a vibrant nationalism -- not only of its own but
in the others it excludes. I think, because I know it best, of the very
vibrant jewish life of Montreal, which continues to this day, and has
remained vital because of its exclusion: it its true that this exclusion
was from Westmount Anglo society as well (the signs that Richler noted as
an adolescent were "no dogs or jews allowed), but there has always been a
difference in the intensity and degree; Jews were allowed to attend, if
not to teach at, the Protestant SChool Board. (Perhaps some of you don't
know that all the schools in Quebec, that is, all the public schools, were
religiously affiliated.) It was Le Devoir that supported the strike of
(mainly) French-Canadian doctors at the Hotel Dieu hospital in MOntreal
when a Jewish intern was hired -- in the 30's. ETc.
As to the constitutional question, the answer -- as far as it can
be determined at this point -- is that Quebec cannot separate. There are
no provisions for secession in anything that Quebec has or has not signed.
But, in the end, they can put forward a Unilateral Declaration of
Independence, and somehow I don't think that we will send in the militia.
(What militia? Maybe we could reconstitutue the Airborne.)
The real political problem would have related to the aboriginal
people: and that is why they kept pressing for an answer before the
referendum. They wanted an assurance from Canada that we would protect
their borders -- i.e. that we would ensure that they -- and the great
tracts of land (including the Quebec hydro project) they own would remain
part of Canada.
That is where the pressure to use some kind of force -- or at
least to resort to some international body -- would come.
I'm so thankful we have been spared that.
ANthony, one more comment. I don't know what the rally in
Montreal did in terms of the vote (although it is interesting that the
eastern portions of the city were less "oui" than had been expected), but
the spontaneous outpouring of feeling did, I believe, cement the rest of
Canada together far more strongly than I have ever felt expressed before.
I wonder if CASLLers from the rest of Canada felt that too.
Aviva
