From: 4224_5201@uwovax.uwo.ca (John LaRocque)
Subject: Re: Legalized Discrimination in Quebec
Organization: University of Western Ont, London
Date: Sun, 20 Dec 1992 22:24:47 GMT

In article <20DEC92.15235432.0059@VM1.MCGILL.CA>, CZ94@MUSICA.MCGILL.CA (CZ94) writes:

> John, if I remember correctly from a previous posting

You mean you REMEMBER my posts. Gee, thanks....

>, you were born
> and raised in London, Ont.  Your mother was a unilingual anglophone
> and your father was an ex-Quebecois who wanted you brought up in
> English.

Yeah, I'm a London boy, and all of my dad's brothers and sisters 
were only toddlers when they moved here. Back in Rouyn, where he 
was born, the town was divided in two. "Maudits anglais" was one
of the expressions spoken by the french guys. And then as a kid
in Ontario he got hassled for his French accent. Even now racist
assholes where he works hand him Reform/APEC pamphlets and hassle
him and the other factory workers for speaking French. I have always
felt home in Ontario, but I know that he did not always feel at home
here. That kind of hurt pride rubs off on you. I'm just more vocal
about it.

>  (I'm working from memory, so I apologize if I've got any
> of this wrong.)  Now you identify yourself as Canadien/Canadien francais
> /Quebecois

You may be onto something here....

>, and suggest that makes you fundamentally different from
> English Canadians.  I'm curious as to why you feel this way. 

not true. I'm just a human being who doesn't really believe in the Canada
that most of us grew up with. You and I are really just two out of
26 million Canadians. As for the "English", I really don't identify
with the current brand of nationalism/imperialism/internationalism that
is prevalent here in Ontario.

> In
> particular, why does your father's heritage have so much greater
> effect on you than that of your mother, or the environment in which
> you grew up?

Actually I never really cared for it until I was a teenager. Up until
then I was just a product of your typical middle-class white North
American English-speaking culture. I watched American cinema (and still
do and am proud of it), and American TV and my heroes were Han Solo
and Luke Skywalker back when I was 8. Maybe they were your heroes too.

Anyways, I was curious about my French heritage in high school and did
a lot of reading on my own time. For the most part the school history
books bragged about how great the British occupation of French Canada
was and how nice it was to let them have their language, religion and
all. A lot of it was just monarchist propaganda (and also included,
American history slideshows from the 1960's - "Now these are the
13 colonies" - BEEEEP - "and Boston was founded in the year... ).

And in the French class in Grade 6 I had a Welsh teacher who bitched
about how the different cases for the pronouns "Je suis..." "Tu es". 
He hated French.  Oh, and the slideshows: "Thomas est sur la plage"
BEEEP "Il fait beau aujourd'hui" BEEEEP. Lotsa fun.

I would have to study REAL history all on my own......
 
> I hope this doesn't come across as a thinly-disguised flame, or a
> purely rhetorical question intended only to put you down.  I'm
> sincerely curious as to why you feel French Canadian/Quebecois.

Why not? Everyone else is proud of their Italian/Irish/Pakistani/
multicultural heritage and all. And HERE I AM with Canadian roots
that go back many generations. And I identify with my French 
Canadian heritage (more to come after this paragraph).

> I'm also curious about your use of "we" and "you" in reference to
> the period immediately following the Conquest.  Do you really
> feel a sense of identification with the Canadiens of that epoch?
> How far back in time does this sense of identification extend?
> When you read about the Battle of Hastings, do you think of
> Guillaume as "us" and Harold as "them"?

The use of "We" and "You" is rhetorical, but it is accurate. There have
always been two dominant nationalisms in Canada, and the respective
visions of the country have always been at odds with each other.

A short note though. English Canadian nationalism has always been either
British imperialist or Anglo-American type nationalism or the latest
brand of UN internationalism. The French Canadians had no "mother country".
Abandonned in 1759, they had only themselves. Their pride was in their
country CANADA, and their own culture and way of life. After the Conquest,
they were alone. They had no foreign mother country to fight and die for.
They had no foreign flag to fly on their soil. The Quebecois were the
first Canadians to love their land and country above foreign countries.
And they suffered for it, with assimilation and all. I identify with
this proud people.

( John says goodbye to Tom and gets his blowtorch ready for his BC friend....
   HISSSSSSSSSSS )
  
> Tom Box
> CZ94@MUSICA.MCGILL.CA
-- 

John P. LaRocque
vader@uwo.ca
University of Western Ontario
London, Ontario


"Urk..urk..."
"Apology accepted, Captain Needa", Darth Vader
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