Oh Québecia! Our home and native land! Oh seperatists, how you never cease to amaze and disgust me. I designed this graphic to put on a t-shirt. It's meant to be ironic because I don't take Québec nationalism seriously in any way shape or form and I just find it funny and ironic to praise Québec nationalism in big block English words.
Well anyway, a little while back, there was this plan to hold a reenactment of the Battle of the Plains of Abraham in Québec City. For those of you (likely most) who don't know the historical significance of the Battle of the Plains of Abraham. Well it's basically the defining Battle in which Britain took control of Québec. Its a big moment in Canadian and Québec history and was scheduled to be reenacted in Québec city, like the Civil War reenactments in the United States. Of course unlike the mock Civil War shows, that go off without a hitch, one crazy high-profile separatist decided to threaten violence against the event. You know, they call that terrorism and instead of being put in jail or questioned he's been made a keynote guest at the show.
Needless to say, the whole reenactment has been cancelled and apparently is now being held in New York at some point. Yes, this is very historically accurate. Now, instead of having the Plains of Abraham Reenactment they're putting together this Québec culture event including reading of Québecois literature. Now one of the proposed literary readings is going to be the FLQ Manifesto. That is the Front du Liberation de Québec, (for those who need another history lesson) a Québec terrorist group from the 60s that senselessly bombed English businesses and kidnapped high profile politicians (including Pierre LaPorte who they murdered). Its also noteworthy to mention that the event is being held on the anniversary of the confrontation with the FLQ, which is, disturbing in itself.
Now, I'm all for Québec history, but reading the Manifesto of the FLQ as "great" Québec literature is absolutely inappropriate. So inappropriate that even hard-line separatists from the Parti Québecois are boycotting the event. Anyone who lived through the FLQ crisis will remember how comfortable it was to have bomb threats at their children's schools and to have people in military fatigues patrolling the streets. To look at that particular chapter in Canada's history as "great" is a disrespect to anyone who has ever lived in Québec. My own mother recounts stories of being nine years old and not being allowed to go to school because there was a threat against her English school.
Not only is it inappropriate to praise the only terrorist group ever in the history of Canada, it's just ridiculous to consider the Manifesto "great" Québecois literature. Technically its a meager few pages, hastily written and mostly plagiarized from the works of Karl Marx by a bunch of anarchist hillbilly french baffoons. So I'd just like to say, that these Seperatists, take themselves too seriously, and undermine what little respect they have in the international community through actions like this. At this rate, Québec will never be its own independent country. There is more to Québec history than a struggle against the evil English. Its about time the separatists give in, if they can't have basic respect for "their" own culture, history and people.
Here's a few links: Manifesto of the Front de libération du Québec
More information on the actual event
Decide for yourself.
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