Posted by Membership Admin. on August 13, 2009
Press Release:
The Real Question: When?
At a recent meeting of the D.A.A.Q. an off the cuff question was posed by a member- it was as follows…. “When will a provincial party come along that stands for all Quebecers?”
This question was posed by a member of a Francophone and Anglophone background.
In respect to Quebec politics. Culture. Economics. Life today. This question was indeed profound.
Which led all of us to ponder – when? When will one man or one woman stand up and lead that charge? One that takes up the cause of ALL Quebecers. Francophone. Anglophone. First Nations. Allophone. Everyone! When?
As the economic power in Canada shifts from Ontario and Quebec to the west and even east-what kind of message are we still sending from our province? We need to understand – no longer is it “business as usual”.
As the economics shift, mindsets change. Here we are-stuck in the 1970’s. Politically, economically, AND socially. Some in the 1770’s! Old divisions. Old mistrusts. Old ways. It is as ridiculous as Ontario’s refusal to accept they are no longer calling the shots for the nation.
This province is silently crying out for a party that is not one of individual interest. Not one that speaks only for the majority. Not one that speaks only for minorities. One that speaks for everyone!
A message needs to be sent from Quebec City to the remainder of our great federation:
-We are Quebecers and we are Canadians.
-We are here to contribute.
-In our province, we speak French by a majority, but do not exclude anyone.
-In our province we have many people from many cultures that have contributed to make this the greatest place in Canada.
-Everyone is welcome, without conditions based on outdated fears, to come here and enjoy being part of our wonderful and unique culture.
We’ll be sure to finally stop listening to the P.Q. The party that polls Quebecers in only their own ridings. Contrary to the P.Q.’s statistics – actual polls indicate an overwhelming majority of Quebecers are “over” the separation issue. It’s dead. Not even the P.Q. and B.Q. can come up with new empty promises justifying economic and cultural isolationism. (A.K.A. national-socialism).
Why can we not move on? We’re not totally certain. We do know – there exists realities of this decade. This century. Realities that hinder us in our great province because the wrong people continue to lie their way to power. “The remainder of Canada will negotiate with us [Quebec] the morning after a vote for sovereignty”. Although our provincial government has rebuked every effort to unify our nation for 40 years. Although Canada as a nation moves forward in becoming a fully bilingual nation. Despite our [Quebec’s] almost universal rejection of any inclusive initiatives – Canada will negotiate with us?
What an insane philosophy and concept that the nationalists and elitists share and sell.
Yet many of the masses continue to believe this, and reject anything deemed or considered “Canadian/Canadien”. What an unreal place we call home.
No longer can we afford the image we’ve been giving off for decades – isolationist protectionism reigns supreme. It is time for our change! It’s not only all of Canada that sees this ridiculous act of ignoring reality – it’s now the entire world.
It’s time for this pretend country nonsense to stop!
Quebec City has become the “National Capital” – what country is that? Can we please stop this game of make believe and get back to rebuilding our great province, in turn helping ALL Canadians rebuild our great country.
No longer should Quebec be a place of blissful ignorance or acceptable discrimination.
Le Messager eliminating English print because it is “cost effective’? Show us where in Canada a provincially funded campaign of “Here we conduct business in English” has begun?
Should the role have been reversed outside Quebec the cries of “foul” would be deafening. As it should be!
But in our province the road has been paved for forty years now – a road that allows for these types of occurrences to considered “acceptable”.
Indeed it is time for our change. When? When is our time? We cannot wait for a savior. They’re not coming. Our time is NOW. To speak with two voices, one English and one French – together – saying the same thing, “we’ve had enough!”
DAAQ.International@gmail.com
www.daaqinternational.wordpress.com
The D.A.A.Q. is a provincial, national, and international association of Anglophone, Francophone and Allophone Canadians in and from the Province of Quebec; who strive to achieve equality under the provincial laws of Quebec. As well as have our rights as Canadian Citizens enforced without compromise, or hindrance within the Province of Quebec.
Defense Association of Anglophone Quebec - DAAQ 
Ashley Watson said
What a croc of shxxx
I am Scottish and have lived in Quebec City for nine years. I am a proud sovereignist and am a member of the PQ and the BQ. I worked for three years for the PQ. Whoever is behind this drivel as they have absolutely no idea?
Lets get some facts straight for starters.
Quebec is a province of Canada in legal terms only. Yes Quebec is a pretend country but it’s ironic that the writer uses the word pretend from the French `pretendre` which means to claim in English. Quebec can easily claim be considered a defacto country in both cultural and economic affairs, I talk about Quebec as a country as I have confidence that Quebec could easily be a country in legal terms. Anyone who claims that Quebec could not survive economicly as an independent country is sadly very misinformed. If anything Quebec would flourish as the deadweight of Confederation has held both Quebec and Canada back for so long. Since the first referendum dozens of new countries have been created so there is no fantasy in Quebec to aspire to have the legal status like these other new countries. The vast majority of Canadians of English culture who live in Canada and Quebec know very little if anything about Quebec. I have met many anglophones who have lived in Quebec their whole life but know nothing about the culture of the Francophone majority. Talk about not integrating into the majority culture! It’s the same for Francophones in Quebec they know nothing about Canadian culture why should they Canada does not care or understand them. The two solitudes are alive and well. I am in a priviliged position because I know both pretty well. When I travel and meet people I never say that I live in Canada and avoid using that word like the plague. I say that I live in North America and if people are curious then I say that I live in French North America (Quebec) and correct people if they then say `Oh you mean Canada` as I remind them that they speak English in Canada just like in the USA and French in Quebec. They speak many other languages in Quebec but the principal language is French. Canada is a foreign country to me just like the USA is a foreign country to Canadians. Canada has two official languages at the federal level only and in any case getting service in French outside Quebec is well ni impossible so forget that Canada is a bilingual country bullshit. I do not speak French when I’m visiting Canada and neither do I expect to, but many Canadians make no effort to speak French in Quebec. When I travel in any foreign country if I don’t speak a word of the local language I will ask politly if they speak English. The vast majority of Canadians and Americans make no such effort and accord no respect to Quebecers in communication situations.
I am not a Canadian and never will be, nor will my daughter who is Quebecoise. I am a Canadian citizen but that is not to be confused with my identity which is Scottish. My identity is my personal choice and I will not accept anyone imposing an identity on me. That is called cultural imperialism. I do not call Canadians American despite the fact the vast majority of people from outside North America cannot tell the difference between a Canadian and an American. I respect your right to identify yourself as Canadian or whatever but many Canadians do not accord the same respect to Quebec which they regard in colonial terms and as belonging to them.
The person or persons who started this blog or group are the blissful ignorant ones and I would be more than happy to educate them as I have engaged in many debates with anglophones and stripped them of their English arogance towards the Quebecois. I have hammered home many home truths that they do not like to hear.
Sovereignists have never promoted cultural and economic isolation. Canada was dead against NAFTA while Quebec was for it. Canadians watch and listen to American shows far more than any Canadian content. Quebec welcomes cultural performers from all over the world (Montréal Festival de Jazz, Fesitival d’été de Québec to name two of many) so spare me the isolationist crap.
Language and culture is what defines Quebec and it is that that Canadians love to use to distingush themselves from Americans. How ironic that a people who have their own identity issues use another culture of which they nothing about to define themselves.
May I remind everyone that Quebec has never signed the constitution yet it is forced to respect it, what sort of democracy is that? Canada is an invented country and Quebec does not fit into that country. I am a proud Scot but I do not live in Scotland. You can still be a proud Canadian and live in Quebec, thus I am like people who identify themselves as Canadian in Quebec are expatriots like me. Live with with it you uptight anglos, the Empire died out long ago.
Bring it on if you want to debate me but be warned I bite hard.
D.I.D. said
Good call, but be careful: there is disinformation on both ends here.
So, Québec feels that the (con)Federation is naught but dead weight on them? Ironically,a prevailing attitude in my part of the country feels that Québec is naught but dead weight on us…
There is a great deal of discommunication between English Canadians, French Canadians, and les Québecois; largely due to the inherit cultural differences and to the fact that the linguistical barriers impede communication. English Canadians regard Canada as a national federation comprised of ten different but equal components, while les Québecois regard Canada as a confederal pact between two nations – originally, the canadiens and the British colonists; now,the Québecois and the Canadians. This major misunderstanding feeds into the two primary misconceptions I see throughout the country, where:
– the Canadians are in an uproar over how Québec, that we see as unique but as only one province, is often engaged in unscrupulous tactics to become more than our equal, and…
– les Québecois, who view Canadian hostility to what they consider neccesary measures to level the odds against them in a lopsided two-nation confederation as a downright attack against their already outnumbered culture.
Likewise, I have a problem with the Québec idea of “les autres.” Who are “les autres”? In the general sovereigntiste discourse, they are those “others”, the English Canadians, who are somehow and someway by the evil of being anglophone, this massive, monolithic and Borg-like conspiracy who desire the assimilation of anything they touch. This is a delusion of Grandier; the so called “Rest of Canada” (I regard this as a highly ignorant and prejorative term) is anything but monolithic. Do you guys actually beleive,that say, a conservative grain farmer in Saskatchewan, a unionized GM worker in southern Ontario, a fisherman in Newfoundland, a coal miner in Nova Scotia, a corporate executive in Alberta, or a lumber company manager in BC all carry the same political stripe? Read your own damn history, and by history I do not mean separatist-or-federalist propoganda, but real, non partisan history. Even when the PQ was in power dans la Ville du Québec, many “English” provinces would often ally with the separatists so they could pull against other provinces to get their own selfish regional satisfication at the expense of others. So please drop this stupid cherade that Canada can be easily devided into two monolitihic components; for it cannot.
I agree with you that the idea that a sovereign Québec would be le Cuba Nordique is simply federalist fearmongerring. There is very little inter-provincial trade, so even if Canada wished to punish a seceding Québec for “betraying” us, the American market that already swallows up most of Québec’s exports would only be too happy to take the rest, and Québec could hurt us much more by making it difficult for travel between the main part of the country’s remnants and the new Atlantic exclave.
As for the national “delusion”, I say that the author of this post is delusional. A nation is, and I’m taking this right out of an internationally agreed definition, “… a body of people united by culture, language, and/or history, that comprise a majority community upon an exclusively national territory, and exist as a polity that may or may not be sovereign…” So, lets count; are the Québecois a people united by a common culture, language,and history? Yep. Are they a majority community with a national territory? Québec is on the map, isn’t it? – of course they are. Is Québec a polity that may or may not be sovereign? As a province, Québec is not sovereign, but it possesses its own government polity, so Québec fits this bill as well. Québec is most definately a nation, I will not argue that, for it cannot be logically argued.
Likewise, how dare you say that Canada is an “invented” nation while a sovereign Québec would be a “real” one. A nation is a social construct; it is half substance and half psychological. The “substance” portion is the reality that draws a national community together, like the factors of culture and language. If you cannot understand the other fella, and you think some of his/her customs are silly, you are not going to gravatate towards that person, but you will gravatate towards someone who speaks your language and possesses similar customs. This is the “tribal substance” of nationhood. The psychological part is a type of mass consciousness of history and comradeship, and the beleif in some form of national “dream”, as well as a general acknowledgement of the national substance. Canadians have, despite all our differences, a national mass consciousness of history and a regionalised but still prevelent comradeship. As for the asshats who cling to Québec as their only hope of differentiating themselves from those “Ugly Americans”, well, they are a national disgrace who have no respect for the richness and uniqueness of their own culture. There are many cultural similarities among the so-called Anglo-Saxon nations, and America is culturally dominant among us, I will not argue that point. But the cultures of the Australians, New Zealanders, English, Scottish, Welsh, Canadians, and Americans do have defining national characteristics distinct from the others in this family tree.(Especially the Scots, who were dragged into anglicization against their wishes.)Canada is a nation that is an equal and distinct member among the family of nations. As is Scotland. As is America. As is Québec.
Also, Canadians accept performers from all over the world as well. America is simply big and nearby, so we all get more of its cultural products than those of other nations.
Québec never signed the Constitution Act of 1982, but it is still party to the original BNA Act (a fact that sovereigntistes like to ignore), so Canada has effectively two constitutions; the original, to which all provinces are bound, and the revised one containing the ammending formula, to which everyone but Québec is party to.
I personally would like Québec to stay, but history shows us that, especially in the age of nation-states, people who are brought up thinking that their culture has been surpressed by outside forces will inevitably have their own country. I will admit that Québec has been oppressed, albeit no where near as bad as the separatists claim, and no where near as bad as other stateless nations in the past, but the mythology of this ‘justified’ separatism has an almost romantic air about it, and Québec will inevitably go. Sooner or later. I would just wish that rather then decentralizing and debasing Canada into oblivion, you guys would just get the hell over with it so that both our peoples can steer their own destinies without one constantly screwing over the other, and vice-versa.
As for you Canadians residing in Québec, you all have my sympathies, for this will not be pretty for you. If you want my advice, when the split inevitably comes, there will be a bit of turmoil as Québec`s new constitution is debated and written, and as negotiations with Canada are underway. Constitutional debates, particularly after a contested seccession, are one of the most wrenching experiences a nation can go through. Take this time to secure whatever rights you can as a minority. (ie, tell Québec City that they will stop or reduce this language aparteid, and you in return will not adjutate for Québec’s partition and will not cause a civil war)
als said
Wow Ashley Watson, you seem to hold the authority on what is happening in Quebec. I would like to know how you came to “know everything”, I would like to be as informed as you are. So your opinion is fact?
Hugo Shebbeare said
Very good! Only point I wish to disagree with is that we are a multi-nation state, so I accept Quebec City as the capitol of that nation (albiet am unconfortable how that excludes French Canadians in other provinces). Ottawa serves as the ROC’s State Capitol and National at the same time, or is it time to give Kingston back the national capitol status for English Canada(?).
equalrights4all said
BRAVO!!!!