The Speares

Living the life in Gravenhurst



Québec


La Belle Province



Jacques Cartier was a French speaking mariner of some repute from the Duchy of Brittany. When the
Duchy was absorbed into France in 1534, Jacques found himself in the court of King Francis I to discuss a voyage to the New World, which was almost certainly Asia, and there he was to "discover certain islands and lands where it is said that a great quantity of gold and other precious things are to be found". The king had been trying to get an expedition together for ten years but Jacques was the first mariner to come highly recommended by the bishop of Saint-Malo. And so, on April 20th of that year, Jacques set out to find the western route to the great markets of Asia.


The twenty day crossing of the Atlantic was uneventful from our vantage point, though I can barely imagine what it must have been like for the sailors at the time. In any event, they arrived in the Strait of Belle Isle between Labrador and Newfoundland (all later names, of course) on May 10th. Then they proceeded to explore a great deal of the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

The land they were exploring, the Gaspé peninsula and the shores of the St. Lawrence river, were inhabited by Mi'kmaq. Jacques' early dealings with them were peaceful enough, the local people being very eager to trade with the newcomers for iron. But when the explorers erected a thirty-foot cross and claimed the land for France, a fishing party of some 200 Mi'kmaq took umbrage. The leader of the fishing party, along with four other men, paddled up close to the ship and "made a long Oration unto us, showing us the cross we had set up, and making a cross with two fingers". Some sailors grabbed their canoe and forced everyone onboard the ship, "But our Captain did straight- waies assure them, that they should have no harme, nor any injurie offered them at all, and entertained them very friendly, making them eate and drinke". That and the gift of some hatchets and knives made the Mi'kmaq quite content, to the point that two of the men agreed to accompany Jacques back to France.

There were two additional voyages to the New World for Cartier, and he made it firstly to Stadacona (present day Québec City) and then to Hochelaga (present day Montréal). At Hochelaga he was blocked by rapids and could not continue sailing to China. He called this stretch of water the Lachine rapids, because they were all that separated him from China, or la Chine. During these voyages he coined the name "Canada" to refer to this part of New France, Canada being a corruption of the Iroquoian word Kanata, meaning Village.


Over the next seventy-four years France continued to expand into its new territory, mostly in search of furs, which were to be found in New France in abundance. Canada at the time incorporated much of what we would today consider to be Labrador, Québec, the Maritimes, much of the north eastern U.S. and no definite border to the west. An administrative outpost was required to more easily control trade with the the Algonquin people, who had recently replaced the Iroquois. Samuel de Champlain arrived in 1608 to set one up at a choice location where the vast gulf of St. Lawrence narrowed and turned into the cliff lined St. Lawrence river, near the now abandoned village of Stadacona. The local people called the area kébec, where the river narrows, which Champlain Gallicised into Québec. We'll talk more about Champlain later.


For another hundred and fifty-five years the fur trade fueled conflicts between Britain and France in
the New World, or more accurately, between the Hudson's Bay Company and the Compagnie des Cent-Associés. This conflict was brought to a head by the Seven Years' War, after which Britain took possession of Canada in exchange for ceding its interest in the Guadeloupe archipelago in the Caribbean, which was an area rich in sugar cane. Britain renamed Canada to the Province of Quebec, which at that time included much of the Ohio and Mississippi valleys, all of the Great Lakes basin and most of the Maritimes. The 90,000 resident Canadiens who lived there were welcome to stay in the new British Province; all they had to do was swear allegiance to the King of England and renounce Catholicism.


Meanwhile, to the south, tensions were running high in what would turn into the American Revolution. Britain became concerned that the 99% French majority of the population in Quebec, those who could not participate in government unless they renounced their faith, would join the unrest and rebel. To counter this, they enacted the Quebec Act of 1774.

This act took out the Protestant wording in the oath of office, effectively meaning that Canadiens did not have to renounce Catholicism in order to be in government. It allowed the collection of tithes and the return of Jesuit priests. It created an uneasy alliance between Civil Law, the law of mainland Europe, and Common Law, the law of Britain. It restored the Seigneurial (feudal) system of land management that had been replaced by the British Township system. And while it made the bulk of les Canadiens happy, or at least the Seigneurs, it was entirely unacceptable to the waves of Loyalist refugees who arrived during and after the American Revolution.

These English-speaking Loyalists tended to settle in the pays d'en haut, to the west of the Ottawa river, far away from the Catholic French. This resulted in the Constitutional Act of 1791, which divided the Province of Quebec into Upper Canada, to the west of the Ottawa River, and Lower Canada, to the east. The division made it possible to clarify the legal systems: Common Law in Upper Canada and Civil Law, or le Coutume de Paris, in Lower. Now everyone could be happy. Except that the Governors and the Upper Houses in both of the Canadas were appointed by the Crown. They were uniformly English speaking, very much loyal to Britain, and had sweeping veto rights over anything decided by the Legislative Assemblies. This was a privileged oligarchy, otherwise known as an old boys' club. The common folk in both provinces rebelled; starting in Lower Canada, but quickly spreading to Upper Canada.


The British Army was initially taken off guard by the ferocity of these rebellions, but after an initial defeat at Saint-Denis they regained control.
The rebellions resulted in political reforms on the one hand, leading over time to responsible government; the other result was a reunification of the Canadas into the Province of Canada, comprising Canada West and Canada East. The legal systems, administration and elections continued to be separate, but the two legislative assemblies were dissolved, and instead there was one assembly with equal representation between east and west. But the problem was that Canada East had by far the majority of the population and felt under-represented in the Legislature.


When the Province of Canada joined Confederation in 1867 it was split up into the two provinces we know today: Québec and Ontario. Québec was well on its way to becoming a Distinct Society, but that notion wouldn't really gain any traction until the Quiet Revolution of 1960, which saw Sovereigntist
sentiments gaining popularity under the leadership of René Levesque. Ironically, one of the most noteworthy results of the Quiet Revolution was the formation of the terrorist Front de Libération du Québec, whose aims were to hasten sovereignty through violence. Public backlash may have influenced the revolution to be a bit quieter, in any event the 1980 referendum offered the newer, softer idea of Sovereignty-Association rather than outright separation. This referendum was lost by René and his Parti Québécois by a 60 to 40 margin.


So in 1980 a firm majority of Québécois chose to stay in confederation; this turned into the slimmest of majorities in the second referendum held in 1995. In that referendum the vote was 50.6 to 49.4 to remain in confederation. The debate has cooled somewhat since then, but is far from over. A recent poll of Québecers shows that today, only 36% are in favour of separation. However, the same poll shows that 47% of the Québec people think the issue will come back.

The relationship of Québec and the rest of Canada has always been as tenuous as that of two young lovers, trying to make a go of it against the rough music of society. Éviter les charivaris, prendre un canot en pleine nuit. Québec next.