Quebec Anglos join the Plaines debate
We’ve been talking quite a bit about the controversy surrounding the proposed re-enactment of the battle of the Plains of Abraham in this space, but since our last post on the subject a couple of days ago, others have been speaking about it as well.
From federal Heritage Minister Josee Verner’s profound disgust at people opposing the re-enactment, to sovereignists calling for people across the country to speak out against it, to random letters to the editor the voices have been raising. Now comes news out of Ottawa that the Harper government may scrap the battle re-creation altogether.
Now, English-speaking Quebecers are adding their voices to the discussion. A consortium of groups are opposing the re-enactment and are looking for others to come on board. OTL is spearheading this project so while it’s normally the policy of this blog to avoid merely copy-pasting press releases, this one’s from us and it gets right to the point, so here goes…
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Anglophone Quebecers demand cancellation of Plains of Abraham re-enactment
A collective of Anglophone Quebecers is demanding the cancellation of the Plains of Abraham re-enactment. Organized by OTL, an activist theatre collective in Montreal that has been calling for the event’s cancellation for several weeks now on its blog, the group is now mobilizing to gather support across the Quebec Anglophone community.
“The obvious question that needs to be asked is why re-enacting this battle is deemed so important,” says organizer Donovan King, an Anglo-Quebecer of Irish heritage. “One needs only to look at the situation in Northern Ireland, where every July 12 military re-enactment parades of the Orange Order “celebrate” the British Protestant defeat over Irish Catholics during a 1690 battle. The result is social unrest, rioting, violence, and sectarian hatred. Clearly re-enacting colonial military dominance over a historically oppressed group is both morally reprehensible and likely to cause serious problems in the society. Why would Canada support, let alone fund and organize such a degrading activity?”
The collective is calling for prominent Anglo-Quebecers to add their voices to the opposition against the Plains of Abraham re-enactment.
For more information: 514-699-3378 or otl@optative.net
February 15th, 2009 at 1:42 pm
This is one Anglophone Quebecer who does not support your initiative to have this event cancelled. This is the separatists way of conjuring up support for separation, I would be very surprised given the “oppression” Anglo Quebecers live under that they do in fact support the cancellation other than reasons of fear! Imagine, fear, living in a democratic society! This is part of Canadian History for crying out loud, this event was not planned as a festive occasion but served to educate and demonstrate that two cultures can co-exist (Francophones and Anglophones)! Instead of constantly living at war with one another over “culture”. The Bloc and PQ seized the event as an opportunity to promote the sovereignty issue and did not condemn the threatened acts of violence, and in fact, agreed to side with the RRQ (an extremist sovereignty group) who threatened these acts of violence, AND THIS IS DEMOCRACY???!!!! How much longer can Quebec deny and rewrite its history???? I guess as long as they threaten violence and political figures back them up, it’s ok right???? What type of message does THAT convey?
Not to mention the same re-enactment has been played out three times already, and once while the PQ was in power with little/no incident, and now that the sovereignty issue has reared it’s ugly face again, it is an issue. The sovereignists are opportunists and this was a great opportunity for them to use to gather support to SEPARATE OUR COUNTRY!!!! And you are trying to gather support from other Anglo Quebecers, that is a disgrace!!!!
February 25th, 2009 at 3:15 pm
[…] versus English” hegemonic discourse, members of Quebec’s anglophone minority called for its cancellation and wrote letters to newspapers across the country, such this one (by yours truly) that appeared in […]