While international law may ultimately take account of a fait accompli , this is not the same thing as authorizing or approving the act in advance. The question of the eventual effectiveness of an attempted unilateral secession is quite different from the question of a right to secede. Furthermore, effective control alone is not enough. Some degree of acceptance as a member of the international community is also required. Moreover, states are reluctant to recognize secessions without some accord or accommodation with the government of the former state.
Rights are different from facts.
The question of a right to independence is one of law. Each arises at a different point in time and addresses different stages of an attempted unilateral secession. Question 2 is concerned with the existence or otherwise of a right of Quebec institutions to commence a process of unilateral secession, not with a possible position at the end of a process. The amicus ignores the crucial distinction between the internal and external aspects of self-determination. Clearly there is a Quebec people in a sociological, historical and political sense, as there may be other groups, in Quebec and elsewhere in Canada, that constitute a people in that sense.