{"id":1047,"date":"2019-11-05T08:37:57","date_gmt":"2019-11-05T12:37:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/?p=1047"},"modified":"2019-11-06T08:07:19","modified_gmt":"2019-11-06T12:07:19","slug":"naziland-qc-facals-article-is-food-for-thought-whether-you-agree-or-not","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/2019\/11\/05\/naziland-qc-facals-article-is-food-for-thought-whether-you-agree-or-not\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cNaziland, QC?!\u201d: Facal\u2019s article is food for thought, whether you agree or not"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

First, who is Mr.\/Dr. Facal? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Born in 1961, he is a Canadian politician, academic,\nand journalist in the province of Qu\u00e9bec. Specifically, he was a Parti Qu\u00e9b\u00e9cois\nmember of the National Assembly of Qu\u00e9bec from 1994 to 2003 and a cabinet\nminister in the governments of Bouchard and Laundry. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He is fluent in Spanish, French, and English. He is an\nacademic trained in political science (B.A., M.A.) and sociology (PhD). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bambi enjoys reading his articles in the Journal de Montr\u00e9al. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Disclaimer: Bambi is a proud Canadian. Younger, she\nhas walked in Montreal for the Canadian unity during the second referendum. And\nyet, she is posting this. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Things have degenerated to a great extent in our\nbeloved Canada (and in our unprofessionally non-critical media) to the point of\nmaking Bambi almost a voter for the Bloc Qu\u00e9b\u00e9cois, had she been a citizen of\nQu\u00e9bec (but she is not). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can you see the irony of all this? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Qu\u00e9bec has the courage to be what it is. Qu\u00e9bec is one of the most progressive places in the world (in Canada for sure, especially nowadays). Qu\u00e9bec is welcoming. Qu\u00e9bec is loving. Qu\u00e9becers are the most open-minded and generous people Bambi has ever met, although they are a minority themselves. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At least, they know how to protect their language,\ntheir values, their collectivity (yes nationalism and nationalism is healthy)\nwhilst being open to the rest of the continent\/world. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why can\u2019t the Canadian media understand that Qu\u00e9becers\nhave a different culture? Their conceptualization of secularism is different,\nnot better and not worse. Just different. Plus, it came after 10 years of a public\ndebate. Bravo to Qu\u00e9bec for knowing how to discuss society\u2019s important topics (i.e.,\nreasonable accommodations). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although in the spirit of other countries, namely in\nEurope (Switzerland, France, etc.), Qu\u00e9bec Bill 21 is moderate, pragmatic, and\nas fair as it can be. It would have been of course, better, not to have to\nresort to such a bill but this is the reality. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Same for Bill 101 (protecting the French language). It\nwas needed, even we can criticize its apparently unfair consequences on a few that\ndo not speak the majority\u2019s language. Qu\u00e9bec remains an example to the world, including\nLebanon, on how to protect its beautiful Francophone language\/culture. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anyhow, here is Facal\u2019s article published in the\nJournal de Montr\u00e9al (in French):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/www.journaldemontreal.com\/opinions\/joseph-facal<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

And here is Bambi\u2019s translation in English:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Naziland, QC?!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Until the\nfederal election on October 21, the elites of English Canada were careful when\nthey tackled Qu\u00e9bec secularism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We did not\nwant to blow on the embers of our nationalism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nresurrection of the Bloc removed all restraint.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

History<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We read the English\nCanadian media and we want to throw up: Qu\u00e9bec is portrayed as a bunch of\nracists who disregard the rights of minorities, especially these \u201cpooorrr\u201d\nveiled Muslim women. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bill 21, to\nwhich one says what it does not say, is only the most recent excuse to reactivate\na collective process, which has been going on for two centuries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The truth is\nthat we have no lessons to learn from English Canada.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The settlers from France had, with Indigenous people, relations infinitely less violent than those of the British or the Americans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1807, the voters of Trois-Rivi\u00e8res were the first in the entire British Empire to elect a Jewish MP, Ezekiel Hart, when McGill University was forbidden to Jews.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the 1838 Declaration of Independence, the patriots proclaimed the equal rights of Indigenous and non-native folks, a pioneering idea for the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my family and I immigrated to Sherbrooke in 1970 from our native Uruguay, we were greeted with fraternity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We knew how to distinguish incomprehension from racism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On November 15, 1976, the voters of Papineau elected, under the banner of the PQ, Jean Alfred, of Haitian origin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then the Qu\u00e9becers opened their arms to Vietnamese people fleeing in makeshift boats, to Lebanese people chased out by the civil war (P.S from Bambi: She can only agree and will endlessly remain grateful!), as they had once welcomed waves of Italians, Greeks and Portuguese.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Latin America experienced its wave of dictatorships and civil wars, we welcomed Chileans, Argentineans, Salvadorans, and so on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1980 and 1995, when the sovereignists came up against the massive, monolithic rejection of their project in communities of recent immigration, they swallowed their pill without violence or a spirit of revenge (P.S: Again, Bambi can only agree and admires both civility and democracy, despite her capacity to understand those disappointed).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When fake refugees used Roxham Road to enter our home illegally, no one proposed building a wall or using violence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anger<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the contrary, this Canada that has been moralizing us for over two centuries is the same country of the reserves and of residential schools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is the internment of Italo-Canadians and Japanese-Canadians during the Second World War.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is the one in which all the provinces except Qu\u00e9bec, all, adopted Bills banning teaching French between 1870 and 1912.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, Canada does not care about the assimilation of francophones outside of Qu\u00e9bec.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is Canada that applauded sending of the army to Qu\u00e9bec in 1970, the arbitrary imprisonment of innocents, the unilateral imposition of a constitution, and referendum cheating in 1995.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And these people allow themselves to insult us?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unfortunately, the ability of some Qu\u00e9becers to accept everything is infinite. When two colonized people meet, they speak well of their master.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And what if others got angry for real?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

First, who is Mr.\/Dr. Facal? Born in 1961, he is a Canadian politician, academic, and journalist in the province of Qu\u00e9bec. Specifically, he was a Parti Qu\u00e9b\u00e9cois member of the National Assembly of Qu\u00e9bec from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1047","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sackvillesmemorialpark"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1047","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1047"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1047\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1070,"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1047\/revisions\/1070"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1047"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1047"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1047"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}