WHO WERE THE PATRIOTES?
NATIONALIST FLAG BLOCKED FROM QUEBEC CITY LEGISLATURE
On May 22, as the
rest of Canada celebrates Victoria Day, Quebecers will get a day off in honour of les Patriotes, the 19th-century rebels who fought to bring responsible government to what is now Quebec. It’s no surprise that the mostly French-speaking province isn’t terribly keen on paying tribute to a long-dead British monarch, and such Patriote leaders as Louis-Joseph Papineau, Jean-Olivier Chénier and Wolfred Nelson are worthy of celebration. Yet last week, Quebec’s Liberal government angered nationalists by blocking a proposal to have the Patriote flag fly above the legislature in Quebec City.
Q: Who were the Patriotes?
A: The Patriotes was the name given to Papineau’s Parti canadien and the popular movement he and others inspired to rise up against British colonial rule in 183738. “The primarily francophone party, led mainly by members of the liberal professions and small-scale merchants, was widely supported by farmers, daylabourers and craftsmen,” the Canadian Encyclopedia says. They advocated democracy and the right to selfgovernment, but at the same time they were in no hurry to get rid of the seigneurial system. After the rebellion was crushed, many participants were imprisoned, exiled or hung. Q: A: The flag was introduced in 1832 by Papineau’s political party and was carried at political speeches and into battle during the rebellion. It is a simple design consisting of three horizontal bars, green, white and red from top to bottom. The flag was seen by the Montreal aristocracy as a revolutionary symbol, and in 1837 the Montreal Herald wrote urging people to destroy it. Some early versions also featured a beaver, a maple leaf or a maskinongé fish. Today, the flag often has the profile of a muskettoting, toque-wearing, pipesmoking rebel superimposed in the centre.
Q: How did Victoria Day come to be called the Journée nationale des Patriotes in Quebec?
A: As early as the 1920s, Quebec had soured on the notion of a holiday for a Queen. A movement to substitute the name of Adam Dollard des Ormeaux, a French soldier killed in a failed ambush of Iroquois hunters, took hold, and for decades the holiday was known as the Fête de Dollard. With the rise of the Quebec independence movement, the Patriotes were adopted as pioneers of a push for national selfdetermination. The flag was flown at separatist marches and rallies, and in 2000 the Parti Québécois added the promise of a Patriotes holiday to its platform. In 2002, the PQ government of Bernard Landry officially changed the May holiday to honour les Patriotes, citing their struggle to ensure the right of “a people to govern itself.” Q: Why would the Liberals object to raising the Patriote flag over the National Assembly?
A: The PQ’s flag-flying motion died without debate after the Liberal deputy parliamentary leader failed to consent to its introduction. But the federalist Liberals were clearly uneasy about raising a flag that has been adopted by separatists as a symbol of their cause. Premier Philippe Couillard has argued the Patriotes are symbolic of unity not separation. In a 2012 essay, he said they embodied the liberal values of inclusion and inter-culturalism, choosing a flag that featured green for the Irish, white for the French and red for the English. But the flag, in particular the version with the soldier, remains a favourite of hardline separatists. When the city of Gatineau agreed to raise the Patriote flag at city hall in 2010, the Liberal MP Marcel Proulx called the move “unacceptable” because sovereigntists “have appropriated that symbol.”
Q: Is it possible to buy Patriote merchandise, preferably without a guy in a tricorne snapping a football?
A: Yes. The separatist website lequebecois.org, whose logo is an image of a Patriote with a pen replacing his musket, sells flags and a selection of shirts. A women’s long-sleeve model features an image of three Patriote soldiers over a map of Quebec and the words “Quebec Libre.” Another site, accentbleu.quebec, sells a giant six-metre-by-nine-metre Patriote flag with handles, designed for carrying in a parade. Price: $2,250.