All right, let me explain to you what is Quebec. You might know that Quebec is a province within Canada you might also know that it is mainly French-speaking and is essentially the core what people refer to as French Canada. But it's somewhat more complicated than just that. So let's have a look at how Quebec came to be, to give ourselves a little bit of context to work with. Quebec is the modern successor political entity to the colony of New France which existed from 1534 to 1763. New France w
as divided into three main regions namely Acadia Canada and Louisiana. Unlik the 13 American colonies, which were settler colonies intended to be populated, New France was for most of its existence a trading post colony, not intended for settlement but for fur trading. That being said French settlers did migrate but at very low numbers and never to the same extent as other European colonies in the Americas. As a result result, during the French and Indian War and despite having a much larger ter
ritory, New France had barely 60,000 settlers compared to 2 million Americans. Most of the French settlers lived in a region called Canada along the St Lawrence River in what is now modern day Quebec. French settlers had good relations with Aboriginal communities out of necessity, specifically because of their low numbers their main allies were the Hurons, an Iroquoian tribe, as well as Algonquians who were both pitted against their mortal enemy: the Five Nations of the Iroquois namely the Iroqu
ois League. The Five Nations originated in modern-day Upstate New York and were allied with the British. They had interest in controlling the Great Lakes region and the St. Lawrence Valley and thus competed directly with the French and their native allies, which led to the Beaver Wars throughout most of the 17th century. During that war the Iroquois League notably committed a genocide against the Hurons, but the French nevertheless treated well those who converted to Christianity which is the re
ason why there is a continuous Mohawk presence in modern-day Quebec and even a mohawk Catholic Saint: Lily of the Mohawks. However the actual relationship between First Nations missionaries and Christianity was not really ideal to say the least, but that is a subject of another video for another time. So, overall the French allied as many native tribes as they could in order to maintain their colony and interests in the fur trade while fighting British influence on the continent. Now, other Fren
ch settlers called Acadians lived in Acadia in the Maritimes in modern-day Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island. It's important to know that Acadia was ethnically cleansed by the British starting a decade earlier resulting in the forced removal of 81.5% of the Acadian population at the time, some of which ending up in Louisiana and becoming the Cajuns while half of those deported died during transit. Now after the British conquest and the Royal Proclamation of 1763, New France was
partitioned and the region called Canada became known as the province of Quebec. At the time it was pretty big as it comprised almost all of the Great Lakes region. The land South of it that used to be French became an Indian Reserve that British settlers could not colonize. The point of this so-called "Indian barrier state" was to appease native tribes to British victory in North America after centuries of hostility as well as to reward their Iroquois allies. This and the fact that part of the
Indian Reserve was given back to Quebec with the Quebec Act in 1774 created a lot of animosity from the American colonists who very much wanted to settle west of the 13 colonies beyond the Appalachian Mountains and felt they needed to be rewarded for their participation in the French and Indian war. With the intent of keeping the newly conquered French Canadians loyal to Britain London had given them a lot of rights that it would normally had never given at a time, notably allowing them to rema
in Catholic and keep certain French laws. In the end we know how things went: America rebelled in an early example of Manifest Destiny and fought a War of Independence with the help of France and Spain. However, not every American colonist was against Britain. In fact, many were Loyalists, loyal to the British crown. Many of these Loyalists migrated to the Maritimes and about 10,000 to the Province of Quebec, specifically in areas that would later become Ontario and the Eastern Townships in Queb
ec. These new Protestant settlers as well as further immigration from Britain brought a lot of English-speakers in the Province of Quebec at a time, even though the whole area was still majority French speaking with around 145,000 French Canadians compared to the newly arrived 10,000 English Canadians. With the Constitutional Act of 1791, Britain sought to ease things up in its colony and divided Quebec into two separate colonies: Upper and Lower Canada. Lower Canada, as a successor to New Franc
e and the Province of Quebec, retained religious guarantees and the same hybrid laws. Civil law was French while criminal law was British and used common law. This is still the case in modern-day Quebec. On the other hand, Upper Canada became a completely British colony with the usual British laws and customs. That colony would accommodate Loyalists and new British immigrants. At the time, Lower Canada had 160,000 inhabitants while Upper Canada had a mere 14,000. More importantly, the constituti
onal act gave French Canadians a minimum amount of political representation, the first time since being conquered some 30 years earlier. Entering the 19th century, while Upper Canada (i.e. Ontario) is doing its thing and being British Lower Canada is struggling with its own political issues namely the fact that the English minority represented through the Château Clique, aka the Lower Canada Tories, controls the British governor and the appointed legislative Council and by extension the colony a
s a whole. In other words, the minority English elite had all the power and wealth this elite directly opposed the French Canadian majority and wanted to assimilate them completely forcing them to become Protestant, speak English, and use English laws. Times were still very colonial the Legislative Assembly had little to no actual powers so even if the French Canadian majority elected people to represent them, they couldn't do much because power rested in the governor and the non-elected legisla
tive Council. Upper Canada had to deal with a similar anti-democratic group of conservative men: the Family Compact, minus the whole ethnolinguistic oppression. This imbalance in power led to the rebellions of 1837 in both colonies although it was significantly more important in the more populated colony of Lower Canada. At the time of the rebellions Upper Canada had roughly 350,000 inhabitants compared to 700,000 in Lower Canada Just prior, in 1834, Lower Canada had sent 92 resolutions to Londo
n demanding reforms and fairness, and asking for real democracy. The British rejected every single demand. The rebellions were obviously lost as the handful of colonial subjects taking arms could not compete against the British army. The British sent a noble to investigate the rebellions, Lord Durham, who published his conclusions in 1839. This report is perhaps the single most important document in Canadian history as it details the relations between French and English Canadians at the time and
led the way for the foundation of the country. But while the Duram report acknowledged the lack of democracy, it was also extremely racist towards French Canadians, suggesting they had no history and no culture, that the English were Superior and ought to assimilate the French population fully by combining the two colonies into one. Indeed the distinction of races is very apparent throughout the report in order to establish the so-called superiority. As Durham states: "That (the English) race,
which felt itself thus Superior in political activity and intelligence, should submit with patience to the rule of a majority which it could not respect was impossible." "(The French race) looked on the province as a patrimony of their own race." "They viewed it not as a country to be settled but but as one already settled." "For this purpose, Canada was afterwards divided into two provinces: the settled portion being allotted to the French and the unsettled being destined to become the seat of
British colonization." He's referring here to Lower Canada (i.e. Quebec) being the already settled part and Upper Canada (i.e. Ontario) being the unsettled part. "Thus, instead of availing itself of the means which the extent and nature of the province afforded, for the gradual introduction of such an English population into its various parts as might have easily placed the French in a minority, the government deliberately constituted the French into a majority, and recognized and strengthened t
heir DISTINCT national character." "Not only did the government adopt the unwise course of dividing Canada and forming in one of its divisions a French community speaking the French language and retaining French institutions but it did not even carry this consistently into effect; for at the same time provision was made for encouraging the emigration of English into the very province which was said to be assigned to the French. Even the French institutions were not extended over the whole of Low
er Canada." "The attempt to encourage English emigration into a community, of which the French character was still to be preserved, was an error which planted the seeds of a contest of races in the very constitution of the colony; this was an error, I mean, even on the assumption that it was possible to exclude the English race from French Canada. But it was quite impossible to exclude the English race from any part of the North American continent. It will be acknowledged by every one who has ob
served the progress of Anglo-Saxon colonization in America that sooner or later the English race was sure to predominate even numerically in Lower Canada, as they predominate already by their superior knowledge, energy, enterprise, and wealth. The error, therefore, to which the present contest must be attributed is the vain endeavor to preserve a French Canadian nationality in the midst of Anglo-American colonies and states." "The English have already in their hands the majority of the larger ma
sses of property in the country; they have the decided superiority of intelligence on their side; they have the certainty that colonization must swell their numbers to a majority; and they belong to a race which wields the Imperial government, and predominates on the American continent." "If we now leave them in a minority, they will never abandon the assurance of being a majority hereafter, and never cease to continue the present contest with all the fierceness with which it now rages." "In suc
h a contest they will rely on the sympathy of their countrymen at home; and if that is denied them, they feel very confident of being able to awaken the sympathy of their neighbors of kindred origin." "They feel that if the British government intends to maintain its hold of the Canadas, it can rely on the English population alone; that, if it abandons its Colonial possessions, they must become a portion of that great union which will speedily send forth its swarms of settlers, and by force of nu
mbers and activity, quickly master every other race." "The French Canadians, on the other hand, are but the remains of an ancient colonization, and are, and ever must be, isolated in the midst of an Anglo-Saxon world." "And is this French Canadian nationality one which for the good merely of that people, we ought to strive to perpetuate, even if it were possible?" "I know of no national distinctions marking and continuing a more hopeless inferiority." "The language, the laws, the character of th
e North American continent are English; and every race but the English (I apply this to all who speak the English language) appears there in a condition of inferiority." "Were the French Canadians to be guarded against the influx of any other population, their condition in a few years will be similar to that of the poorest of the Irish peasantry." "There can hardly be conceived a nationality more destitute of all that can invigorate and elevate a people than that which is exhibited by the descen
dants of the French in Lower Canada, owing to their retaining their peculiar language and manners." "They are a people with no history, and no literature." "Much as they struggle against it, it is obvious that the process of assimilation to English habits is already commencing." "The English language is gaining ground as a language of the rich and of the employers of labor naturally will." "It appeared by some of the few returns which had been received by the commissioner of the inquiry into the
state of education, that there are about ten times the number of French children in Quebec learning English, as compared with English children who learn French." OOF... That was a lot, right? Well the Act of Union was passed in 1840 and merged Ontario and Quebec at the time into a single colony called the Province of Canada or the United Canadas. French was initially banned from Parliament and courts until 1848 when the Act was amended. Lower Canada became Canada East and Upper Canada became Ca
nada West for administrative purposes such as assigning a number of legislative seats. Indeed to ensure assimilation of the French Canadians, Canada West had the same number of seats as Canada East despite having a lower population. The Constitution Act of 1867 established the Dominion of Canada and the country's current political system. Despite most history books generally treating this as the foundation of the modern state of Canada and its independence from the UK, this is inaccurate as Cana
da remained a colony part of the British Empire and was not a sovereign state. The provinces of Ontario and Quebec were created as the successor states of Upper and Lower Canada respectively while the colonies of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia joined the nascent federation, a process altogether referred to as Canadian Confederation. The Constitution Act more importantly established important language rights, notably equal status of French and English at the federal parliament and in federal court
s. Despite all the previous attempts at assimilation, some French Canadians perceive Canadian Confederation as a nation-building endeavor between two equal people. They were wrong. Assimilation efforts never stopped. They just got worse outside of Quebec. As I previously mentioned, French settlers had fairly decent relations with the native tribes at least compared to other European colonial powers. First off, the core French settlement was the St. Lawrence Valley which had previously been inhab
ited by the St. Lawrence Iroquoians who were gone when the French returned to establish trading posts in the early 17th century. Modern anthropologist studies have reached a consensus that the St. Lawrence Iroquians were a group of native tribes distinct from the Hurons or the Iroquois League. At the arrival of French settlers, the St. Lawrence valley was used as a raiding area by Algonquians and Mohawks alike, and neither had any permanent settlement there. Therefore, French presence in the val
ley was not as impeding on tribes in the region as the English in the 13 Colonies, because unlike their fellow European colonists, the French didn't settle their land, at least not directly. The only natives they were really opposed to in the area were the Upstate New York based Iroquois League who coveted the Great Lakes region as a whole. And considering the Iroquois League's genocidal warfare practices, it would not be surprising if the St. Lawrence Iroquoians were one of their victim in the
same vein as the Hurons were later on. The good relations of the French with their native counterparts often led to marriages and this in turn led to the existence of Métis people who are of mixed European and Aboriginal descent, and predominantly French-speaking. The Métis had settled out west in the Prairies, in what is now modern-day Manitoba. Saskatchewan, and Alberta. In 1869, the Hudson Bay Company ceded the territory to Canada who had appointed an English Governor, William McDougall, to a
dminister the area. McDougall was hostile to the Métis, to Aboriginals and to Catholics, all three of whom represented the majority of the people living in the Prairies at the time. The Métis leader, Louis Riel, led a rebellion against the Canadian federal government to guarantee Métis, Aboriginal and Catholics' rights for Manitoba to join Canada. They negotiated with the federal government and came to an agreement that resulted in the Manitoba Act of 1870, guaranteeing French schools for Métis
children and the right to be Catholic, as well as making French and English the two official languages of that province. However, during the rebellion, Riel's provisional government had tried and executed an English Canadian expansionist called Thomas Scott, which did not sit well with English Canadians who became outraged and called for Riel to be arrested. The Rebellion ended and Riel fled to the US, because he would not have been given amnesty. He returned to Canada 15 years later in 1885, le
ading a second Métis rebellion, this time based in Saskatchewan. This Northwest Rebellion failed and Riel was tried and executed by hanging for treason, despite French Canadians pleading to the federal government for clemency. After the fail rebellion and its dismantlement by the federal government, the Prairies became controlled by English Canadians, who began policies of repression and assimilation against French Canadians, including the Métis. In 1890, Manitoba removed French as an official l
anguage, making English the only official language, while also banning public- funded Catholic schools. From 1916 to 1947, education in French was banned completely, resulting in forced assimilation of most Franco-Manitobans. Ontario passed a similar law even earlier in 1912: Regulation 17, which was partially repealed in 1927, allowing for bilingual schools, but French schools were not allowed back until 1967, all this despite Ontario having a significant French-speaking minority. Even worse, i
n New Brunswick, home of a large Acadian population, French had no legal recognition ever since the establishment of the English colony in 1784. In 1871, New Brunswick banned Catholic schools and only permitted French education until the 3rd grade. Only in the 1960s did New Brunswick change its laws to allow student to receive full education in French or English. A similar theme can be found in other provinces where accommodations for French-speaking minorities only occurred due to federal laws
in the late 20th century. Meanwhile, Quebec had always provided education in English to its English-speaking minority, so they were particularly resentful of other provinces for forcibly assimilating its French Canadian minorities. French Canadian identity at a time was intrinsically tied to being Catholic. The Catholic Church controlled every aspect of French Canadians' lives and church was the primary social, political, and educational authority. They met people at church, priest gave politica
l sermons, and they were taught by priests or nuns at schools. Priests controled families and made sure women were having as many children as possible to ensure the survival of the French Canadian race, shaming unmarried women and women not having children. This strategy, dubbed the "Revenge of the Cradle", was a natalist and social control policy enforced by the Church. Obviously the Catholic Church's objective was the survival of Catholicism in North America despite being surrounded by Protest
ants. They little care for language or identy as they provided English instruction to the anglicized Irish Catholic immigrants through the 19th century. While the educated political leaders of the Rebellions of 1837 advocated for a liberal and secular society, the conservative Catholic Church was naturally opposed to such a national project. To them, French Canadians were meant to be Catholics and conservative, not liberal and definitely not secular. French Canadian nationalism is therefore born
as a conservative ethno-religious identity, but it is also initially very pan-Canadian. The politician and journalist Henri Bourassa, one of such pro-clerical conservative French Canadian nationalist, was an important public figure in early 20th century Quebec. He defended and promoted the idea of Canada being a bilingual country founded by two equal people: the English Canadian Protestants and the French Canadian Catholics. Of course, he was an idiot, and a misogynist as well. Canada had not b
een founded as a bilingual country and much less as an equal country. The very formation of Canada as a political entity was with the clear aim of assimilating French Canadians, as detailed in Lord Durham's plans and subsequent British Acts. There were several of Bourassa's contemporaries who advocated for linguistic rights, a secular society, and women's emancipation at a time, while also being French Canadian nationalists, such as the politician Godfroy Langlois. Unfortunately, hisory very oft
en forgets them. Another key figure of early French Canadian nationalism was Lionel Groulx. Groulx was an influential priest who was also most likely anti-semitic. Nevertheless, he was instrumental in the establishment of French Canadian clerico-nationalism, which dominated Quebec politics for the first half of the 20th century. Groulx and Bourassa's nationalist and conservative ideas were based not only on the way French Canadians were treated outside of Quebec at the time, but also on French C
anadian history as a whole and the Conscription Crisis of 1917. As Canada fought alongside Britain in the First World War, most of their recruitment was on a voluntary basis, but by 1917, the conservative federal government of Robert Borden enacted the Military Service Act which aimed to conscript young Canadian men and send them to Europe to fight the war. French Canadians were mainly against the war and an anti-conscription movement was led by Bourassa with his Anti-Imperialist ideals. He had
notably been a vocal opponent of Canada sending troops to fight in the Boer Wars. Bourassa was of the opinion that Canadians, French or English, should only fight for Canada, not in Europe's imperialist wars. The call to arms by an Empire that oppressed them was also far-fetched from a French Canadian perspective. Meanwhile, English Canadians many of whom were recent immigrants from Britain were obviously mostly in favor of conscription and defending the Empire. This created major political tens
ions based on linguistic and ideological lines, as the English will was once again imposed on French Canadians. But the early 20th century saw the arrival of immigrants from outside of the UK and Ireland, most of whom siding with the English Canadian and Protestant majority by choosing for their children to receive education in English. A government report published in 1967 found that 90% of immigrants settling in Quebec chose English over French despite over 80% of the population speaking the l
atter. The report concludes that unless we wait for a hypothetical miracle we must agree that large-scale immigration playing 90% or 95% in favor of the English-speaking minority can only result in constantly reducing the importance of the French language in Quebec and to begin a process of "minoritization" of the French speaking community in Quebec. In other words, immigration led to French Canadian assimilation whether it was British immigration like in the 19th century or international immigr
ation like in the 20th and 21st centuries. This is why certain politicians and Quebec voters at large can be more reticent to mass immigration compared to English Canadians. They see immigration as a threat to the preservation of their culture which is a valid fear considering the centuries of attempts at Anglicization of French Canadians. But could we really blame international immigrants for choosing English, especially at the time? English was and remains the language used by dominant force i
n the country. Even in the province of Quebec, English Canadians or Americans were the wealthy industrialists the bosses who owned the factories and the foremen who gave orders while French Canadians were the employees, the working class. Even in predominantly French-speaking areas signage and advertisement were almost always in English. Surely, you'd see this and think French Canadians were doomed to be assimilated and fully anglicized much like the Scots, the Welsh, and the Irish had been befo
re them. Moreover, this was also the time of mass emigration of French Canadians to the United States seeking better economic conditions. With the threats of anglophone immigration and francophone emigration, French Canadians in Quebec had to take actions to preserve their language and culture, but those came only much later. Quebec's Liberal Premier, Adélard Godbout, who was in power during most of World War II, introduced several progressive reforms to Quebec society. One of which was the righ
t for women to vote at provincial level in 1940, much later than in English Canada due to opposition by the Catholic Church. Godbout improved labor rights and introduced compulsory school attendance and free primary school education throughout the province. The creation of Hydro-Québec in 1944 led the way for it to become the state-owned monopoly on electricity production and distribution. However, Godbout lost re-election in 1944 to the agrarian and autonomist Maurice Duplessis, who returned to
power after a stint in the 1930s. Duplessis was low-key a dictator during his tenure as Premier of Quebec. His era is known as the "Great Darkness" and was characterized by anti-unionism, political corruption, and McCarthy-style anti-communism. He encouraged foreign companies, mainly American and British ones, to invest in Quebec and exploit the province's large natural resources, giving unwavering support to big corporations in their fight against labor unions. Moreover, the Duplessis governme
nt directly funded the Catholic Church to provide education healthcare and social services to French Canadians. The Church, meanwhile, naturally supported his government. In the words of historian Suzanne Clavette: "Favoritism was the basis of the Duplessis regime." "In Quebec before 1960, there were license plates with small numbers for friends of the regime which allowed them to ignore speed limits and highway code under the eyes of the police and 'scholarships', in the form of salary paid to
the children of supporters of Duplessis' political party, the National Union." "Government contracts were given without soliciting bids and 10% of the value of these contracts had to return to the party's electoral fund. Duplessis' successive electoral reforms gave more weight to the votes of rural people than to those of urban districts." (in what is known today as gerrymandering) "His unique pollsters appointed by the National Union, who entered the names of deceased people, newborn babies, an
d even farmers' horses on voting lists did indeed exist." "Ballot boxes were forgotten in taxis." "There were intrusions to fill ballot boxes with fake votes in the middle of an election in front of a number of witnesses." "Votes were bought." "At the time of Duplessis, all of this existed and was common." But perhaps the most disgusting crime of the Duplessis era was the "Duplessis Orphans". Thousands of illegitimate children born out of wedlock were forcibly placed in religious orphanages by t
he government with the direct complicity of the Catholic Church. These institutions would collect subsidies granted by the federal government for the care of children declared having an intellectual disability but none of these children actually had any disability. Many of them would suffer sexual, physical, and psychological abuse and once grown up, having received no formal education, would find themselves disadvantaged compared to other adults and fated to live in extreme poverty. Some of the
se Duplessis Orphans also became actual slaves, unpaid laborers on farmlands for boys or in factories for girls... Thankfully, after so much Darkness came Enlightenment. Duplessis died in 1959* and his party was defeated in 1960 by the Liberals and Jean Lesage became Premier. Throughout the 1960s, the government rapidly introduced major reforms modernizing Quebec society. This period is known as the "Quiet Revolution". It is during this period that "Québécois identity" emerged along with its nat
ionalism with the name "Quebec" as a clear rejection of the "Canadian Confederation" compared to the more federalist French Canadian identity. The word "federalist" will be used a lot in the next segments of this video essay. It is important to understand that this means someone who wants to remain within Canada and retain the status quo. Its opposite term is "separatist": a person who advocates for the separation or independence of Quebec from Canada. After centuries of social domination by the
Catholic Church, the Québécois people had enough. Secular laws were passed formerly separating Church and State. The Quiet Revolution did not only have major impacts on Quebec institutions as a whole but also on people's customs. Baby boomer youth who entered their teenage years at a time would reject the oppressive Catholic religion of their parents. Most of them didn't marry, favoring common law partnerships instead, a unique case not found elsewhere in Canada outside the territories. The vot
ing age is lower to 18, electricity production and distribution already partially nationalized by Godbout decades before is now fully nationalized. At the federal level, Pierre Trudeau, a perfectly bilingual man of French Canadian and Scottish descent became Prime Minister in 1968, representing the Liberal Party. His government passed the official languages act in 1969 which created official bilingualism in Canada at federal level. This act was meant to solve the linguistic concerns of Quebec na
tionalists and French Canadians at large. As a response to the federal policy of official bilingualism New Brunswick adopted a similar act and became the only official bilingual province in Canada in the same year. Manitoba, who had a third largest French Canadian population in the country, continued to ban French, a situation that had begun in 1890. In Quebec, meanwhile, nationalism was still on the rise. Two separatist political parties were formed during the 1960s: the left-wing "Rally for Na
tional Independence" aka the RIN and the conservative National Rally. The RIN was led by Pierre Bourgault. It was involved in a number of strikes and violent protests against both royal figures like the Queen and federal figures like Pierre Trudeau himself. Around the same time René Lévesque, a former minister under the Lesage government left the liberal party and founded a separatist political group that would later merge with the conservative National Rally to form the Parti Québécois, commonl
y known thereafter by its initials PQ. This merger of more right-leaning separatist political parties forced the hand of the RIN who informally merged with the PQ in 1968. The separatist movement had now a single political party representing them and Quebec nationalism as a whole: René Lévesque's Parti Québécois. In April 1970, the Liberals won the election with a majority and Robert Bourassa became Premier. The emerging PQ won seven seats out of 108 despite having collected 23% of the popular v
ote. Later that year, a major event occurs: the "October Crisis". The separatist terrorist group FLQ comprising a handful of hardcore fanatics kidnaps a British diplomat and murders a provincial Minister: Pierre Laporte. The situation prompts federal Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau to invoke the "War Measures Act", declaring martial law in Quebec and sending the Canadian Forces on its streets. Hundreds of ordinary Québécois people are arbitrarily arrested. The crisis ends with some of the terroris
ts having been granted passage to Cuba, while others are arrested and tried for the murder of Laporte. The failure of the FLQ and lack of popular support for them stopped any other violent separatist movement as Quebec nationalists, whether autonomist or separatist, would from then on only advocate for peaceful independence. In 1973, the RCMP, Canada's federal police and also its intelligence service at the time, stole the PQ's party members list, consequently obtaining a list of the majority of
Québécois separatists allowing them to know if sovereigntists were part of the Canadian Armed Forces or work for the federal government as public servants. This illegal act was only revealed in 1977 and caused a major scandal and more mistrust between Quebec and the federal government. Pierre Trudeau denied giving the order to spy on Quebec sovereigntists but documents published decades later revealed that the federal government was directly involved. A year later in 1974, Bourassa's federalist
government passed the Official Language Act which established French as the sole official language of Quebec, who previously did not have any official language. Two years later in 1976, the separatist Parti Québécois won a landslide election defeating Bourassa's Liberals. They passed the Charter of the French language, commonly known as "Bill 101" in 1977. The objective of Bill 101 as stated in its preamble was to make French the language of government and the law as well as the normal and ever
yday language of work, instruction, communication, commerce and business. As previously stated, despite Quebec being over 80% French-speaking, work and business were often only in English with English advertisement and signage omnipresent. The Charter also recognized the right of the First Nations and the Inuit in Quebec, the first inhabitants of this land, to preserve and develop their original language and culture. Almost two centuries after the Constitutional Act of 1791, Quebec had finally b
ecome the official home of French Canadians. The Anglophone minority in Quebec were obviously opposed to the Charter but considering how Francophone minorities had been treated in the rest of Canada, could they really complain? In practice, the Charter barely affected them. While it had provisions regarding compulsory education, stating that primary and secondary education should be in French, different articles of the Charter also provided for the use of indigenous languages and inuktitut as a
language of instruction at the discretion of the indigenous communities in Quebec. Meanwhile, education could be in English under either of two conditions: If a child whose father and mother is a Canadian Citizen and receive elementary instruction in English anywhere in Canada provided that the instruction constitute the major part of the elementary instruction he/she received in Canada; OR if a child whose father or mother is a Canadian Citizen and who has received or is receiving elementary or
secondary in instruction in English in Canada, and the brothers and sisters of that child, provided that that instruction constitutes the major part of the elementary or secondary instruction received by the child in Canada. This English educational provision respected the established Anglophone minority while making sure that new immigrants would integrate to Quebec's francophone society rather than contribute to its Anglicization. In 1971, the Anglophone minority in Quebec represented 13.1% o
f the population. Following the rise of Quebec separatism and nationalism in the 1960s and the passing of French language laws in the 1970s, many Anglophones left the province, mainly for neighboring Ontario. As a result, the Anglophone minority went down to 7.6% some 50 years later in 2021. However it is to be noted that the Anglophone proportion is relatively stable since the turn of the 21st century. In 1980, Quebec held a referendum on the question of "sovereignty-association". It was a very
vague question and difficult to understand as it advocated for both the sovereignty of Quebec while retaining a political and economical association with Canada. The result was the no side winning by 60% against 40% for the yes side. Two years later in 1982, the federal government passed the Constitutional Act, effectively repatriating and creating a new Canadian Constitution, without the approval of Quebec. Until that point, the British Parliament had the power to amend Canada's constitution,
meaning Canada was technically not a sovereign state but still a colony. Quebec refused to sign the act as once again English Canada's will had been imposed on them. However, the Constitution was still legally binding in Quebec according to the courts of law. In 1984, an Anglo-Québécois, Bryan Mulroney, became Prime Minister of Canada while leading his Progressive- Conservative party to a landslide victory after promising to his home province a new constitutional deal. Mulroney delivered on his
promise, reaching a consensus with Quebec and the other provinces with the Meech Lake Accord. Quebec would be recognized as a "distinct society" and provincial powers would be increased at the expense of the federal government, solving both Quebec's issues and to an extent "Western Alienation". Opposition parties agreed with the Accord and the public was favorable as well. However, former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau became an ardent oppent. He, who had led an increasingly centralizing federal
government for the last 16 years, saw the Accord as caving in to Quebec and provincialism. His positions created division throughout the Liberal voter base in the country at both provincial and federal levels. At the moment of signing the Accord, provincial Premiers who had previously agreed with it were now flip-flopping and going back on their decision due to lack of support in their province, instead proposing new amendments. In the end, they all signed the Accord which had to be ratified wit
hin three years by the provincial legislatures and the federal parliament since it would amend the constitution. Quebec was the first to ratify the Accord a mere 3 weeks after the ceremonial signature. Saskatchewan and Alberta followed suite a few months later. However, New Brunswick and Manitoba's governments both collapsed in the meantime due to uncertainty, putting the whole thing in jeopardy. Meanwhile, a Canadian Supreme Court decision in 1988 forced Quebec to amend Bill 101, as a complete
ban on outdoor public signs, posters and commercial advertising in English was deemed to violate the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Bourassa passed Bill 178 to override the ruling by using the Charter's notwithstanding clause, which retained the ban. This angered English Canadians and saw the rise of a more vocal "English Only" movement with groups like the Alliance for the Preservation of English in Canada. The most prominent member of the Alliance was a guy called Jock V. Andrew who
had published a book titled "Bilingual Today, French Tomorrow", suggesting that official bilingualism was part of a government plot to make Canada a monolingual French country. Laughable, really... In any case, by 1990 the Meech Lake Accord was still somewhat alive, needing ratification in three remaining provinces: Manitoba, New Brunswick and Newfoundland. Things escalated as a commission was established to try to find an agreement with New Brunswick. Lucien Bouchard, a close friend of Mulroney
and a minister in his Conservative cabinet was particularly vocal against the commission's report which suggested a parallel accord would need to be added. Bouchard resigned and Mulroney and him never spoke again, only for Bouchard to make a speech at the House of Commons stating that the original Meech Lake Accord was good as it was and that without it, Quebec independence was the only remaining option. To spice things up even more Quebec's Premier and lifelong federalist, Robert Bourassa, agr
eed with Bouchard. As the Meech Lake Accord ultimately failed with more provincial legislative shablang, Bourassa made a speech in front of Quebec's National Assembly, declaring that: "English Canada must clearly understand that no matter what is said or done, Quebec is, today and forever, a distinct society, free and able to assume control of its destiny and development." These events led to the creation of the Bloc Québécois, a federal party commonly known by its initials BQ. The BQ's role was
to protect the interests of the Québécois in Ottawa. Bourassa, meanwhile, gave an ultimatum, promising there would be a referendum in 1992 on either a new constitutional agreement with Canada or Independence for Quebec. Between 1990 and 1992, new rounds of negotiations occurred between the provinces and the federal government, as well as First Nations this time, resulting in the Charlottetown Accord. This time, the ratification process would be more straightforward and was a federal referendum,
held on October 26th, 1992. Ultimately Canadians rejected at 55% the Accord while 45% had agreed to it. Western Canada overwhelmingly didn't like the Accord because it gave too much powers to Quebec while Quebec rejected the Accord because it didn't give them enough powers. Ontario was pretty much 50/50 on the Accord. In Quebec, the Parti Québécois returned to power in 1994 with Jacques Parizeau as Premier. Parizeau had promised an independence referendum and delivered it in 1995 with a clear a
nd simple question. The "no" side won with Quebec choosing for the time being to remain within Canada, but the referendum was extremely close to be a "yes" victory. Accusations of irregularities were thrown from both sides, including ballot suppression by the "yes" side against the "no" side, which the Quebec Supreme Court investigated and found to be unsubstantiated. The "yes" side on the other hand accused the "no" side of financial fraud and of using shortcuts to hurry citizenship application
s for immigrants who would most likely vote "no". As a matter of fact, 43,855 new Quebecers obtained their Canadian citizenship during the year 1995, with about ¼ of these (11,429) being granted during the month of October just before the referendum was held. A few years after the referendum, the Canadian Supreme Court ruled that Quebec could not legally separate unilaterally from Canada but that the government of Canada would have a legal obligation to enter into separation negotiations with Qu
ebec in the event that a clear majority of its people were to vote in favor of independence. In 2000, the federal parliament passed the Clarity Act which directly aimed at controlling any future Quebec independent referendum and breached the Québécois people's right of self-determination. It gave the federal House of Commons the power to decide whether a proposed referendum question was considered clear before the public vote and that any question not solely referring to secession was to be cons
idered unclear. It gave the House of Commons the power to determine whether a clear majority had expressed itself following any referendum vote, implying that some sort of super-majority was required for success. It also stated that all provinces and the indigenous people would be part of the negotiations. It allowed the House of Commons to override a referendum decision if it felt the referendum violated any of the tenants of the Clarity Act. And finally, the secession of a province of Canada w
ould require an amendment to the Constitution of Canada. Quebec's National Assembly passed a countering act, Bill 99, which emphasized Quebec's right to self-determination under international law, of its territorial integrity, and also the right of Quebec's anglophone minority and of the aboriginal nations of Quebec. Bill 99 stipulates that Quebec may determine unilaterally how to exercise their right to choose their political regime including sovereignty and that the winning option in a referen
dum is whichever obtains 50% of the votes plus one. Its Article 13 finally stipulates that: "no other parliament or government may reduce the powers, authority, sovereignty or legitimacy of the National Assembly, or impose constraints on the democratic will of the Quebec people to determine its own future." The Quebec Superior Court ruled in 2018 that bill 99 was constitutional, as it didn't give Quebec a unilateral right to secede. We've now arrived in the 21st century and modern times. Welcome
. That was it for the story lesson. You're now pretty much up to date with Quebec's political context within Canada and their main grievances towards the rest of the country. Now, what about how the rest of Canada feels about about Quebec? Well, there are a lot of misconceptions, notably the whole idea that Quebec is somewhat a beggar province receiving help from Alberta. You've maybe heard Albertan politicians talking about equalization payments. Of course, they're deflecting from their own sho
rtcomings within their province but that's the subject for another video. Quebec haters love to pretend like Quebec gets everything, forgetting it has a large population, that Quebec receives less federal transfers than any of the so-called "receiving provinces" no one ever complains about Manitoba, the Maritimes, or the Territories receiving equalization payments or other federal transfers. Nah... It's always Quebec. I wonder why, huh? I wonder why. At the heart of Equalization is what's known
as fiscal capacity. That's the revenue each province could raise if they all used a standard tax rate. Provinces with stronger economies raise more revenue than provinces with lower incomes. The feds use equalization to bring those with a weaker fiscal capacity up to a national standard Critics say the "have" provinces, like Alberta, send money to the "have not" provinces, like Quebec, to subsidize programs like cheap daycare. It's clear. It's simple. And it's wrong. Alberta doesn't send money t
o any province. Ottawa collects federal taxes at an equal rate across the country. It's not so much that Alberta pays more. High income individuals do, and a lot of them happen to live in Alberta. Indeed, cheap daycare in Quebec is funded by Quebec taxpayers who, by the way, pay the most provincial taxes of any province of territory in Canada. It's therefore normal that they receive the most services from their provincial government. One other major misconception people have about Quebec is that
Quebec is racist. Well, sure, Quebec society is racist to the same extent as any other modern Western society with a large amount of ethnic minorities living besides a more homogeneous majority population. There will be bigoted groups and bigoted politicians. They unfortunately exist in every country. The misconception then isn't that racism exists in Quebec. It does. No, the misconception is that Quebec is racist but the rest of Canada isn't. And that is the biggest joke I've ever heard. Good
job generalizing on an entire people and showing your lack of self-awareness. So, say because this racist person exists, I am to assume that all English Canadians are racist? 'Cause that's your logic. One legislation that is often brought up when criticizing Quebec recently is Bill 21, which bans the wearing of religious symbols among public servants, requiring state secularism and separation of Church and State. This means, for example, that a Muslim woman who's a teacher cannot teach in Quebec
while wearing a hijab. The law is similar but not as drastic as laws pass in France and Belgium who have also been criticized in the Anglosphere. I personally think such laws are unnecessary and the current Quebec government of François Legault is generally incompetent, but Bill 21 can be compared to laws passed in several Muslim countries. In Kosovo, the hijab has been banned in public schools, university and government buildings since 2009. In Azerbajan, since 2010. Are they racist and islamo
phobic? In Turkey, the hijab - seen as a symbol of political Islam - was banned in universities and public buildings from 1981 until late 2013 when the ban was lifted through a decree. Is turkey racist or islamophobic? In Tunisia headscarves were banned from schools and government buildings from 1981 to 2011. Is Tunisia racist or islamophobic? So even if you disagree with Bill 21, as I do, and 3/4 of Quebec youth do, per polls, the law objectively does not make Quebec racist or islamophobic. You
also have to take into account the fact that Quebec society has a negative relationship with religion due to its history of social dominance and abuse with the Catholic Church previously controlling every aspect of French Canadian lives, ultimately prompting Quebec to reject religion during the Quiet Revolution and embrace secularism. Meanwhile, Canada's Head of State, King Charles, continues to be the head of the Anglican Church, technically making Canada a theocracy like Iran, so... You know.
.. But anyway, one thing I must add before moving on is that bilingualism in Canada is completely asymmetrical. It almost exclusively applies to the Francophone minority having to learn English rather than English Canadians learning French. Any English Canadian will tell you that French classes are a joke and none of them will retain any of it unless they really want to. Also, unlike Francophone minorities, Anglophone minorities are not endangered anywhere as English is on the rise literally eve
rywhere. Indeed, everyone, French Canadians included, have a lot more interest in learning English as it is the global hegemonic language of communication, business, and diplomacy. We've previously established how French is not favored by immigrants in Quebec, let alone the rest of Canada, hence why Quebec has tried to favor and target immigration from French speaking areas like Africa and the Maghreb. In terms of population weight within Canada Quebec is roughly comparable to most of the Wester
n states if we apply the Canadian context over a US map. Funnily enough, Greater Montreal, so the Montreal metropolitan area, would be as significant as California. If we include other parts of Canada, the Greater Toronto Area would be roughly the whole Northeast and the rest of Ontario the Midwest. Vancouver and BC would be a good chunk of the Southern states and finally Alberta, fittingly, is the Texas of Canada. In terms of official languages we'd get this, with Kansas and Oklahoma representi
ng the bilingual New Brunswick. However, when you use mother tongue, you see that Colorado represents roughly the Anglophone minority in Quebec while Kansas represents the Acadians in New Brunswick, and Nebraska and Iowa the rest of the Francophone minorities in Ontario and those spread out elsewhere in Canada. That is why my guess is Quebec independence is inevitable. Quebec's demographic and political weight within Canada is slowly diminishing year after year as population in the rest of the c
ountry grows at a faster rate, notably in Alberta and Ontario. Speaking of Ontario, modern federal elections are all solely dependent on which way the province is voting so even now Quebec doesn't affect the outcome of federal elections. As their presence diminish more and more at federal level, Quebec Francophones will naturally come to the conclusion that independence is the only path. So... On that note... Can you feel your Heartsink? I can feel mine. I can feel mine. And we'll sacrifice for
the opposite. Because there must be more and we know it.
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