Competing national holidays
La Fête nationale and Canada Day reveals much about how they see their identities — and those of others
It was more than the wet weather that had Quebec sovereignists in a gloomy mood on Tuesday, Quebec’s Fête nationale holiday.
It was also the recent election results, which condemned sovereignists to an indefinitely extended state of political limbo, like the one in their half-country in the week between its two rival “national” holidays.
If Quebec has what sovereignists consider one too many national holidays, it’s because its people are divided by identity as well as politics.
The existence of a single, all-inclusive Quebec nation is a political argument that is not based on reality.
There are “the Québécois,” whom Parliament recognized as a nation by that name, in English as well as French, in 2006. (The claim that it recognized the entire province as a nation is wrong.)
There are the 11 aboriginal nations, recognized as such by the National Assembly in the late 1980s.
And then there are those who identify themselves primarily or exclusively as Canadians. Polls consistently show that most Englishspeaking Quebecers fall into this category.
So Quebec has two “national” statutory holidays, its own Fête nationale on June 24 and the federal Canada Day on July 1. But while everybody gets both days off work, not everybody celebrates them with equal fervour.
In a poll in Quebec last week by Léger for the Association for Canadian Studies, 67 per cent of non-francophones agreed that the celebration of Canada Day strengthens their sense of attachment to Canada, but only 31 per cent of francophones did.
In striking contrast, 63 per cent of francophones said the Fête nationale strengthens their attachment to Quebec, but only 27 per cent of nonfrancophones did.
This is partly due to the political polarization of Quebecers between federalists and nationalists.
In the case of the Fête nationale, even some French-speaking Quebecers consider that the celebrations have been hijacked by the sovereignty movement to promote its cause.
The organization of the celebrations has been en- trusted to sovereignist groups such as the Société saintjean-baptiste de Montréal (SSJB-M).
The celebrations are not only about politics, however. They’re also about identity.
While the organizers invite English-speaking Quebec singers to perform in Fête nationale shows, they require that they sing in French instead of English. That is, the artists must check their language, their identity and their usual means of artistic expression at the door.
This policy received widespread attention in 2009, when nationalist organizations, including the SSJB-M, tried unsuccessfully to prevent two English-language acts from singing at a neighbourhood concert.
Criticism f rom Frenchspeaking commentators forced the nationalists to back down on that occasion, but the no-English policy remains in effect.
For Monday evening’s major outdoor concert in Quebec City, the lineup included two English-speaking singers from Montreal, Patrick Watson and Martha Wainwright, who sang in French only.
Wainwright told Quebec City’s Le Soleil before the show that she thinks the public is ready to hear English-speaking Quebec singers perform in their own language at Féte nationale events, “but maybe not the organizers.”
The no-English policy has been tolerated by the successive Quebec governments, Liberal and Parti Québécois alike, that provide public funding for the official celebrations.
This tells English-speaking Quebecers that they are welcome at the celebrations of their other national holiday only if they pretend to be something they are not.
No wonder, then, if the celebration of their other national holiday doesn’t make them feel more attached to Quebec.