Perils of Pauline in Quebec
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Have you heard the expression "identity politics"? Bob Fulford in the National Post remarks that Quebec premier Pauline Marois has been "mining" the idea to drive a wedge between the rest of Canada and Quebec.
That's like picking up a pair of pliers to hammer a nail.
Identity politics was coined by Blacks in the 1970s and has been adopted by one group after another trying to arouse a sense of being oppressed through attitudes in peoples' past.
Marois, according to one pundit, knows this is not the real history of Quebec. France lost interest in the colony and traded it off to the British. The British didn't force the orphans to adopt British culture, law or religious affiliation. In that sense Quebec has been libre down the years since generals Wolfe and Montcalm duked it out on the Plains of Abraham.
French explorers were well on the way to spreading French culture all across North America when the Church of Rome seized power and drove Quebec fur traders to the King of England for a better deal.
Psychiatrist Dr. Camille Laurin was a minister in the first Parti Quebecois. He applied his professional model as a metaphor to persuade Quebecers their Quebec soul was damaged by historical events. That led to the first language law.
Marois is using the ploy of rousing the other provinces and the federal government to stick their noses into Quebec business. Like a family feuding among themselves, when an outsider comes along the family drops the feud to drive out the intruder.
Marois' Charter of Quebec Values reminds me of another attempt to hold a culture in a changeless state. Moses is credited with writing the first five books of the Old Testament, known as the Torah. How he did it when it describes the end of his life I don't get. The core of Hebrew law was summed up in the Ten Commandments.
Religious thinkers in ancient times wrote commentaries on Moses' laws. In effect they built a high fence around the laws so that no one could commit acts that would get them stoned. This collection is also known as The Torah. Then in the 16th Century another layer of teaching came into being: The Talmud.
In spite of these valiant efforts to prevent straying from the true path, Judaism has split into three main streams, each with its laws of conduct. Seems likely Marois' efforts will not be able to stem the flow of change.
In 1016 the new King of all England, Canute, tried to prove to his subjects that he was a man, not a god. He plunked a chair on the sea shore and commanded the tide to stay out. He got his feet wet.
A century or so later a historian who didn't understand what Canute's aim was took the story as proof that Canute was a fool. Ever since, most people accept the historian's version. Doesn't reflect well on the common mind
From experience, I can assure you that trying to drive a nail with a pair of pliers can result in serious damage both to your project and to yourself. Fingernails can be painfully blackened and replaced by new growth. Blood can stain your work. Infection can find its way into your blood stream maybe to result in early death.
Angry citizens waving placards against the Charter of Quebec Values may indicate cultural infection, identity politics, that will lead who knows where?