Quebec Quotes
Attacked by so many after years of service, he was finally defeated.
The Canadian government had put down a brief rebellion led by Louis Riel, 1844-1885, in Winnipeg. French Canadians in Quebec identified with the nationalist and many protested his death sentence. Riel was hanged shortly thereafter.
He was a major critic of French Quebec Separatism and some elements of French Canadian culture including his perception of sexism. His French Quebec Separatist enemies translated passages of this work into French and (some say deliberately) mistranslated this line to read: Quebec women are sows. The quotation was bandied about Canada in the original version as well as the mistranslation.
Richler was disliked by Levesque and other French Quebec Separatists because he opposed not only separatism but special privileges for Francophiles compared with other minorities. However, he was an admirer of the French Canadians as people and Canadians and was a supporter of Trudeau—he just opposed the separatists and special privileges for them. But some French Canadians were surprised by this quotation.
French Canadian separatists had begun a movement for an independent Quebec. The area that was to be an independent nation, however, included the land of several Indian tribes including the Cree. They insisted on the same right of self-determination within Quebec as the French Canadians claimed within Canada. Their opposition among others led to the failure of the Meech Lake Accord.
The 1977 Quebec language law decreed that all immigrants be educated in French, that all businesses transact in French, that English-named towns, rivers, and mountains be Frenchified, and that all English (or even bilingual) commercial signs be outlawed. Other minorities could only transact business in French. After great protest and ridicule the Quebec Parliament amended the law to allow French signs to contain another language provided that the font of the other language was no bigger than half that of the French.
In 1990 Lucien Bouchard resigned from his government positions to further the cause of Quebec separatism. A reporter from the Vancouver Sun asked him whether he felt like a traitor to this country.
American history as several instances in which America wanted to invade Canada and add territory to the United States. See {636940}. This was the first.
One of the very poorly executed military maneuvers of the American Revolution was the failed patriot attempt to invade Canada and take Quebec. The Generals assigned to lead the invasion made a host of blunders. When things were not going well, they asked for Benedict Arnold to come and reinforce them. However, they asked for help too late as Arnold explained to George Washington. The reason they wanted Arnold was that at the early part of the American Revolution he was one of the two best field commanders the Patriots had. Soon after, he led the successful battle of Saratoga, but his Commander did not give him any informal or official credit. Arnold felt that he was not properly recognized for his many military achievements and that appears to be true. However, with that mental predisposition, he gave in to venal motives and went over to the British side—the only senior officer who committed treason in the Revolution.
