Founding pact was a founding ‘myth’

Lise Ravary laments the “weakening ” of a Canadian founding pact that, in reality, never existed.

She writes: “Shame about the weakening of the founding nations pact, though. That hurts. … Does anyone care that we (referring to francophones) opened up North America with First Nations?”

I recommend she read the scholarly book by Stéphane Paquin titled L’Invention d’un mythe: Le pacte entre deux peoples fondateurs. He holds a doctorate in political science from l’Institut d’études politiques and is a full professor at the École nationale d’administration publique.

Paquin writes on Page 59: “Un pacte entre deux peuples est une réalité impensable en 1867.” The Fathers of Confederation never heard of Canada as the emanation of “two founding peoples.” The myth was created by Henri Bourassa in the early 20th century.

Ravary adds the First Nations to the list of the founders. But that gives no added credibility to what began and remains as a myth.

It is a harmful myth because it implies that Canada, ever since 1867, has betrayed the original “pact” which was to have made French and English equal official languages across the new country. Unfortunately, the founders never proposed such a constitution. It took the 1982 Constitution Act to repair in part the imperfect vision of Canada enacted in 1867.

William Johnson, Gatineau