French Canadians

SIGNIFICANCE: Canadians of French descent, who have formed an integral part of Canadian society since the colonial period, have often felt that their cultural beliefs and language were not sufficiently respected by English-speaking Canadians, who constitute a majority in Canada.

The very motto of Quebec, Je me souviens (“I remember”), clearly indicates that the distant past continues to have a profound influence on current events in the province. French Canadians refer to the British victory over French forces in 1759 as the Conquest of Canada, whereas English Canadians speak of the Seven Years’ War. The decisive battle in this war took place on the Fields (or Plains) of Abraham in Quebec City in 1759, and this area has been preserved by the Quebec government as a reminder of English efforts to destroy French culture in Canada. French Canadians firmly believe that England strove to impose an alien culture on them, and they have not forgotten this perceived lack of respect for their cultural values.

Early Conflicts

In the years immediately after Canada became an English colony, successive English governments attempted to reduce French influence in Canada. Thousands of French-speaking Acadians were expelled from Nova Scotia. English-speaking Canadians came to dominate economic and political life in Quebec. French-speaking Canadians were largely restricted to manual labor and farming. Although the French Rebellion of 1837 against the English government of Canada failed, it created cultural unity among Catholic French Canadians against Protestant English Canadians. While Canada remained under the direct rule of England, social peace in Canada was impossible because of the extreme antagonism between the two major ethnic groups of Canada. During the American Civil War, the English government aided the Confederacy and President Abraham Lincoln had to use considerable diplomatic skill in order to prevent a declaration of war against England. As the American Civil War ended, the English government concluded that it was in England’s self-interest to transform Canada from a colony into a new form of government. Quebec, Ontario, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia agreed to join together, and the British North America Act of 1867 created the Dominion of Canada. When John A. Macdonald became the first prime minister of Canada on July 1, 1867, English and French Canadians hoped that this political unity would unite the new country socially.

From the Confederation of 1867 to World War I

With the creation of the Canadian Confederation in 1867, French Canadians were optimistic because the British North America Act of 1867 guaranteed linguistic and religious rights for all Canadians. The new Canadian government included Catholics and Protestants and English Canadians and French Canadians. The first Canadian prime minister, Macdonald, was a Protestant from Ontario, and his chief political adviser was George Étienne Cartier, a Catholic French Canadian from Quebec. Macdonald’s sensitivity to the aspirations of French Canadians boded well for the unity of this new country, but after Cartier’s death in 1873, the influence of French Canadian Catholics diminished in Canadian national politics. With the exception of the fifteen years between 1896 and 1911 when Wilfrid Laurier was prime minister, between 1867 and the election of Louis St. Laurent in 1948, all Canadian prime ministers were English-speaking Protestants. French Canadian Catholics felt excluded from high political offices. Laurier and his supporters in Quebec wanted to create an independent Canada with no interference from Britain, but Robert Borden, who served as the Conservative prime minister from 1911 to 1920, and English-speaking Canadians affirmed that it was Canada’s duty to fight in World War I because the British government had asked Canada and other members of the British Empire to do so. French Canadians and their leader Laurier argued that this war did not concern Canada. Borden alienated French Canadians when he questioned their patriotism because they opposed military conscription during World War I. The imposition of conscription provoked anticonscription riots in Quebec City between March 29 and April 2, 1918. Calm was restored only when Catholic bishops in Quebec and Laurier persuaded French Canadians to return to their homes because they could do nothing to change the attitudes of antagonistic English Canadians, who did not respect their culture and religion. At that time, the profound influence of the Catholic Church in Quebec served to discourage the desire for separatism in that province.

YearEventImpact1759Battle of QuebecThe British victory over French forces in the battle in Quebec City ends French control of Canada.1837French RebellionThe brutal suppression of this French Canadian rebellion against English Canada demonstrates to French Canadians that the English will not respect their social values.1867British North America ActThis English law creates Canada as an independent country within the British Empire and establishes French and English as the official languages of Canada.1896Election of Wilfrid Laurier as prime minister of CanadaLaurier becomes the first French Canadian to serve as prime minister of Canada.1918Anti-conscription riots in Quebec CityFive days of rioting by French Canadians enraged by the imposition of conscription for a war that in the minds of French Canadians concerns European and not Canadian interests.1948Election of Louis St. Laurent as prime minister of CanadaThis election indicates to French Canadians that the legendary Laurier is not the only one of them who can lead Canada.1965Canadian Maple Leaf flag instatedRemoves British symbolism from the Canadian flag.1976The Parti Québécois takes power in QuebecThis separatist party wins political control in Quebec under René Lévesque.1980Defeat of the first separatist referendum in QuebecThe defeat of this referendum in Quebec permits the continued unity of Canada.1982Canadian Charter of Rights and FreedomsReaffirms the equality between English and French as the official languages of Canada.1995Defeat of the second separatist referendum in QuebecThe defeat of this referendum in Quebec permits the continued unity of Canada.

From World War I to the 1960s

Borden’s insensitivity and the comment by his minister of justice, Arthur Meighen, that French Canadians were “a backward people” because of their opposition to military conscription transformed Quebec from a province that had elected both Conservative and Liberal members of parliament into a province that sent almost exclusively Liberal members of parliament to Ottawa for the next four decades.

In the 1921 general election, for example, the Liberals won all sixty-five seats in Quebec. William Lyon Mackenzie King, who served as prime minister from 1921 to 1930 and then from 1935 to 1948, and his successor Louis St. Laurent made a determined effort to include French Canadians at the highest levels of the Canadian government, but when the Conservative leader John Diefenbaker became prime minister in 1957, he appointed almost no French Canadians to important government positions. Once again, French Canadians had been snubbed by their national leaders and made to feel like second-class citizens. By the 1960s, the social and political influence of the Catholic Church in Quebec began to wane, although most French Canadians remained practicing Catholics. Catholic bishops in Quebec no longer had the ability to dissuade French Canadians from expressing both their profound alienation from the rest of Canada and their desire to separate from Canada.

The 1960s and Subsequent Decades

Diefenbaker was succeeded as prime minister in 1963 by Lester Pearson, a distinguished Canadian diplomat and Nobel Prize laureate. Pearson understood the profound alienation of French Canadians. He undertook two specific measures to reestablish social unity in Canada. Until 1965, the Canadian flag had contained a British Union Jack, a symbol that French Canadians associated with the Conquest of Canada and efforts by English Canadians to suppress French culture in Canada. In late 1964, Parliament approved Pearson’s proposal for a new red-and-white maple leaf flag. Red and white have traditionally been the colors of Canada; maple trees grow in many regions of Canada; and the maple leaf symbolizes Canada.

This new flag was psychologically very important for Canadian unity because it contained purely Canadian images and included no reference to the earlier French and British domination of Canada. Pearson also appointed a Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism, which affirmed in its 1967 report both the equality between French and English as the official languages of Canada and the need for mutual respect and understanding between the two major cultural groups of Canada. His efforts to unify Canada were continued by Pierre Trudeau, who served as prime minister from 1968 to 1979 and then from 1980 to 1984.

A British trade commissioner named James Cross was kidnapped in October 1970 in Montreal by members of the Front de Libération du Québec (FLQ), a militant separatist group, and the kidnapping and murder soon thereafter of Quebec minister of labor Pierre Laporte provoked a major political crisis. Daniel Johnson, who was then the premier of Quebec, felt that he had no choice but to ask Prime Minister Trudeau to invoke the War Measures Act to restore peace to Quebec. Trudeau sent Canadian soldiers to Quebec to assist local police officers in their search for the hostages. Cross was released unharmed, but the terrorists murdered Laporte. The decision of Prime Minister Trudeau to send soldiers to Quebec to restore order reminded separatists that English Canadians had used military force on several occasions since the Conquest of Canada to impose their will on Quebec.

In 1976, a separatist party called the Parti Québécois won the Quebec provincial elections and René Lévesque became the premier of Quebec. He wanted Quebec to separate from Canada. In a referendum held in 1980, the province soundly rejected by 59 percent to 41 percent the proposal for Quebec to separate from Canada. Fifteen years later, a similar referendum was held in Quebec and it also was defeated, although by a much closer margin than in 1980. Although the separatist movement remains strong in Quebec, it is not clear what the future holds for the multicultural and bilingual country named Canada. The tenth leader of the Parti Québécois, Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, has promised to bring another referendum for independence.

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