02.11.1995

Canada - close to the edge

CANADA CAME close to fragmentation this week with the referendum on Quebec’s independence. The run up to Monday’s vote saw the country plunged into turmoil, if not virtual chaos. The panic reached such proportions that the Canadian Prime Minister, Jean Chrétien, actually invoked broadcasting legislation in order to make an emergency address.

The supporters of independence lost by the narrowest of margins, securing 49.4% of the votes cast. This is a significant improvement for the Quebecan nationalists from the last referendum held in 1980, which saw a 3:2 defeat for them. Quebec’s premier, Jacques Parizeau, has promised that, “We will roll up our sleeves and we will try again. We want our country and we will get it.”

A mere 53,000 votes frustrated the separatist ambitions of Lucien Bouchard and his Bloc Québecois. Given the fact that 86,675 ballots were spoiled, victory was tantalisingly close. Naturally the separatists, in the time honoured bourgeois tradition, have claimed a “moral victory”. This issue has certainly split Quebecan society down the middle, with an exceptional 92% turnout for the vote.

The reactionary backlash from the referendum has already begun in Quebec. Parizeau has pointed the accusing finger at the English-speaking and ‘immigrant’ population of Quebec, blaming the “ethnic vote” for the separatist defeat. There is a chauvinist logic to Parizeau’s gripe, as more than 90% of the ‘English/immigrant’ community voted ‘No’. Still, Parizeau appears to have pushed the chauvinist boat out just a little too far. After a barrage of criticism, he announced on Tuesday his intention to step down at the end of the current parliamentary session.

It should be made clear that there is no progressive content to the demands of Bloc Québecois. Its leadership and platform is entirely bourgeois. Lucien Bouchard himself was quite happy to be a cabinet minister under the Conservative government of Brian Mulroney. The central slogan of the separatists, “Maîtres chez nous” (Masters in our own home), clearly refers to the Quebecan bourgeoisie, not the working class.

There is no way that Quebec can be defined as an oppressed nation. It enjoys a high degree of autonomy, with Canada being the most decentralised of the advanced capitalist countries. The French language has no restrictions placed upon it in Quebec - it has a ‘superior’ status to English. Indeed, Canada has been headed by French-speakers, which includes Jean Chrétien, for all but three of the past 27 years.

This in no way diminishes the necessity for Canadian revolutionaries to support the right of Quebec to self-determination, up to and including secession. However, it is even more incumbent for Quebecan revolutionaries to support the unity of Canadian and Quebecan workers. Unfortunately, the Quebecan left has a history of tail-ending nationalism and separatism.

Paradoxical though it may seem, the amalgamation of countries, as represented by the North American Free Trade Agreement, has clearly encouraged the Quebecan separatists. In a free trade zone, why look to the protection of the larger state?

Communists in Canada, including Quebec, must fight for the continued unity of workers, across all regions and borders - while at the same time defending the democratic rights of all peoples. This must also include the Cree and Inuit peoples of Quebec, who currently claim two-thirds of that territory.

Frank Vincent