Lafond says Quebec’s independence struggle is dead

MONTREAL – When his wife, Michaëlle Jean, was named Governor-General in 2005, Jean-Daniel Lafond came under suspicion in English Canada for his coziness with radical Quebec separatists. But now, as Ms. Jean prepares to leave office this fall, Mr. Lafond has declared the Quebec independence struggle dead and launched a broadside against a nationalism that he says is based on ethnicity and nostalgia.

In an interview in the current issue of the French magazine L’Express, Mr. Lafond said he realized upon immigrating to Canada from France in 1974 that “the fight for a free Quebec” had died during the 1970 October Crisis.

“As soon as I arrived, I believed profoundly that the real fight was not for separatism – a geo-political aberration – but for culture, so that this country or piece of the country, this province, this cultural reality would be respected,” he said.

He called the fact that he and Ms. Jean have occupied Rideau Hall for the past five years a sign of respect for Quebec culture and the French language.

Mr. Lafond, a documentary filmmaker, said Quebec nationalism has now become an obstacle to the province’s development: “Quebec nationalism is demanding nostalgia for a lost country. This nationalism is no longer useful … I have never understood that in Quebec one can define oneself primarily by blood, when if there is a mixed blood anywhere, it is there.”

After then prime minister Paul Martin announced his choice of Ms. Jean as Governor-General, questions emerged about the couple’s loyalties. In a 1991 film by Mr. Lafond, Ms. Jean was shown declaring, “No more dominated people,” in a toast joined by hard-line separatists including Front de libération du Québec founder Pierre Vallières. In a 1993 book, Mr. Lafond wrote, “An independent Quebec? Yes, I applaud with both hands and I promise to attend all the St-Jean-Baptiste Day parades.” It surfaced that Mr. Lafond had boasted of a bookcase he had built by former FLQ member Jacques Rose, convicted of being an accessory after the fact in the 1970 kidnapping of Quebec cabinet minister Pierre Laporte, who was murdered by his captors.

The controversy forced Ms. Jean to issue a statement before she was sworn in, pledging her and Mr. Lafond’s commitment to Canada. “I want to tell you unequivocally that both he and I are proud to be Canadians and that we have the greatest respect for the institutions of our country,” she said.

Ms. Jean and Mr. Lafond had been dismissed as turncoats by some hard-line sovereigntists for accepting the Rideau Hall posting, and Mr. Lafond’s latest comments have provoked more angry responses. Gérald Larose, president of the Conseil de la souveraineté du Québec, accused Mr. Lafond of spouting federalist propaganda. “He is spreading disinformation,” Mr. Larose told Radio-Canada. “That’s his role. He has a fiction to produce.”

Mr. Lafond’s critique in L’Express is not limited to Quebec nationalism. He notes a steady decline in the quality of French instruction in Quebec schools. “The percentage of people who cannot properly read a newspaper in French in Quebec is huge,” he said. “It is incredible for a Western society, and it is distressing.” The noble battle Quebecers should be fighting is to stop the “creolization” of French as it is spoken in the street, he said.

Mr. Lafond criticized Quebecers for disregarding the francophone community beyond the province. “I fight for a Canada that, in its entirety, belongs to me as a francophone. It would be good to have French-Canadian patriotism and to recognize that there is a French-Canadian citizenship,” he said.

Speaking about Canada as a whole, he said “British Canada” is fraying and the nation’s ties to the Crown are purely symbolic. He expressed satisfaction that Canada has gone beyond multiculturalism, which “leads to clannishness and conflict.” As evidence, he cited the rejection of the use of Shariah law in Ontario and Quebec.

The federal government announced last month that Ms. Jean, who was born in Haiti, will become the United Nations’ special envoy to the Caribbean nation when her term as Governor-General ends. A foundation has also been created in her name through which she will promote educational and cultural initiatives.