From: cbbrowne@csi.uottawa.ca (Christopher Browne)
Subject: Re: Toronto Sun: another case of paranoia???
Organization: Dept. of Computer Science, University of Ottawa
Date: Wed, 11 Nov 92 03:55:10 GMT

In article <BxJ4KM.Eq6@watserv1.uwaterloo.ca> tdwebste@sparta.uwaterloo.ca (Timothy D. Webster) writes:
>In article <1992Nov10.173313.21590@cerberus.ulaval.ca> you write:
>>(This  message is written in bad english so that unilingual
>>anglos can respond as well)

Thanks :-)  I'll spare you my "mauvais francais," since it's about 8
years out of practice.

>>It is well known that quebecers are frequently affected by
>>serious socially-induced paranoia when it comes to discussing
>>the way Canadians view each other. ( :)??? )
>>
>>But then again maybe not.
Yes, it probably is paranoia, at least in this case :-).

>>---------------------------------------------------------------
>>Title: 3rd millenium Templars. The all-Canadian superheroes.
>>
>>The first episode I read shows a quiet manifestation of young
>>canadians "reflecting on the future of their country" disturbed
>>with no apparent reason by a violent guy wearing a "Bloc Quebecois"
>>T-shirt, saying "The Bloc Quebecois say No,no,no! We will fight
>>encore to the bitter end! No!". Then the superhero arrives and puts
>>an end to the struggle while singing the national anthem.

This sounds like it's combining a little ridicule of the
super-patriotic American superheros.

It's pretty unusual for Canadians to "wrap themselves in the flag,"
and singing "O Canada" while fighting an "evil BQ" person is similarly
unusual.

The cartoon is in part making fun of how bland Canadians often are.
Superhero?  Singing O Canada?  Not likely.

>>Second episode: Hidden in a dark secret cavern (!!!) under Mont Royal,
>>a "more radical and potentially dangerous group of the bloc quebecois 
>>is deciding (???) the country's future". There we hear them shouting:
>>"We must stop the Yes vote.", "Sovereignty or death!". Then someone
>>asks them to do it without violence, and someone answers: "T'es fou
>>toi? You're crazy? No violence! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!". The strip finishes
>>on the the reflection that it "Sounds like another FLQ crisis."

This one's a little more demented, and rather more cruel to Quebecois,
but since it's hardly realistic, I don't think it means very much.

>>I notice here the same tendency that some journalists spotted after
>>Oka crisis, which is to introduce french quotations where it comes
>>to frighten people; it sounds like a foreign language and calls to
>>their potential xenophobia. (during Oka crisis it was reported that
>>english journalists switched from "Quebec police" to "Surete du Quebec"
>>because it sounds more like "Securitate" or "KGB".)

The journalists can't win.

If they called them "Quebec Police," some francophones would complain
that "Ce n'est pas la vrai nom.  C'est la (?) Surete du Quebec.  Vous
ne pouvez pas utilizer la vrai nom, et ca nous offende!"

If they call them "Surete du Quebec," it's xenophobia because it
sounds like "Securitate".

Either way, some quebecois are offended.

If you are looking for something for which you can take offense,
you'll probably find something. 

>>In any case, it certainly is a nice case of Quebec bashing, and 
>>a call to intolerance if not total war against separatists. I
>>never saw anything like this on this side of the... the whatever
>>it is that separates ontario from quebec. 

You probably haven't seen the APEC types that REALLY want to go to war
against separatists.  They might be REALLY scary.

It's not Ontario that really hates you guys - whether Quebec separates
or not, Ontario's going to have to live with it, and we'll be living
closer than anyone else.

It's when you go to the far west that you find REAL hatred..

>People in Canada enjoy free speech. Remember all the people who deny
>that the Holocaust happen in WWII. It was very difficult to get these
>people to retract this lie, because of free speech laws. 
>
>Quebec Separatist are an enemy of Canada. The Bloc Quebecois have as
>their mandate, the separation of Quebec. Therefore they are an enemy of
>Canada. Remember this comic strip did not attack Quebecois ONLY
>Separatist. 

It IS hard to tell the difference sometimes between Quebecois and the
Separatists.

The Separatists would like everyone to think that ALL Quebecois (and
probably generalizing further, all francophones) are Separatists.

Since a Quebecois reading an English cartoon may be passing through a
couple of levels of cultural translation, it may be difficult to grasp
the distinction between hatred of Separatists, and hatred of
Quebecois.

It's made harder by the fact that sometimes it's hard for people
outside Quebec to tell the difference between Separatists and
Quebecois.  (If my thesis advisor, a francophone from France who is
NOT Quebecois or Separatist in the slightest, travelled through BC, I
wouldn't be shocked to hear that he was harassed for being an "evil
separatist."  I'd be saddened, but not shocked.)

>Your example does capture a common feeling toward Separatist. Please
>understand this not an attack on the Quebec people or culture.

This is the fact that's hardest to explain - since most of the time,
the people that say "Please understand..." typically have just, or are
about to, perform a major verbal attack on Separatists and Quebecois.
Just like the attack that occurs next...

>The
>seemingly never ending threat of Quebec separation is like Quebec Separatist
>taking CSQ hostage. Everybody is so tired of it they just wish Quebec 
>Separatist would STOP. Common reactions are they wont separate and I 
>refuse to be held hostage, I don't care anymore, what a waste I quess I
>will try to get out of Canada, Dam those Separatist lets teach them a
>leason and kill them all. The last reaction is the most scary. This is
>very scary! If Quebec separates all Quebecois will be considered 
>Separatist even though this will not be true.  

I think that simply saying "I don't hate Quebecois" and stopping there
would be far more successful in sending that message.  This sort of
(misspelled drivel) stuff does a pretty good job of driving home the
point that you actually DO hate "those evil Quebecois."

-- 
Christopher Browne                |     PGP 2.0 key available
cbbrowne@csi.uottawa.ca           |===================================
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