Path: utzoo!lsuc!atha!ncc!philmtl!tremblay
From: tremblay@philmtl.philips.ca (Michel Tremblay)
Newsgroups: can.general
Subject: Re: Canada: one or two cultures?
Message-ID: <629@philmtl.philips.ca>
Date: 27 Jul 89 18:22:55 GMT
References: <615662921.9256@myrias.uucp> <568@UALTAVM.BITNET> <604@philmtl.philips.ca> <89Jul19.104948edt.18727@me.utoronto.ca> <609@philmtl.philips.ca> <1989Jul24.085326.28706@jarvis.csri.toronto.edu> <1989Jul24.220904.22318@tmsoft.uucp>
Reply-To: tremblay@philmtl.philips.ca (Michel J. Tremblay)
Distribution: can
Organization: Philips Electronics Ltd. -  St. Laurent  P.Q., Canada
Lines: 46

In article <1989Jul24.220904.22318@tmsoft.uucp(Elizabeth Doucette)> you write:
>In article <1989Jul24.085326.28706@jarvis.csri.toronto.edu> elf@dgp.toronto.edu (Eugene Fiume) writes:
>>In article <609@philmtl.philips.ca> tremblay@philmtl.philips.ca (Michel J. Tremblay) writes:
>>>
>>>I dont know how you can talk about 'our (canadian) culture' without using
>>>plurial.  Canada like many other countries (Swiss, Belgium...) do not have a 
>>>true culture but is composed of a many cultures.  ...
>
>I am proud of being an Acadian.  I prefer my French, Irish and Indian
>ancestry.  But I am Canadian first.  I am sick and tired of all this
>belly aching about cultures.  If someone doesn't want to be a Canadian
>or they are not proud to be a Canadian, then go back to the country
>they came from.

Well there is a litle problem with you proposition. 
Most immigrants to this land have chosen to be Canadians. On the other 
hand, French Canadian were FORCED to become Canadians.
When we (the French) came here and established ourself, there was no 
problems. We had friendly relations with most native nations. However 
after the british occupation of our country (+- eastern Canada) 
things got bad for the French Canadians: seizure of land and goods, 
political prisonners, restricted civil rights, imposition of a foreign 
judiciary system, cutoff of relations with France, etc.
The 'Lower-Canada repesentatives' and later the 'que'bec representatives' 
who agred to joined the Confederation in 1867 were representing the 
interests of the English Lords and the Dominion's Financial Institutions, 
not the interests of the Que'bec population. 

Although all these events and constraints are past, they have shaped 
French-Canada to be what it is today. 

For all these reasons, a lots of Que'bequois and French Canadians are not 
proud of been Canadians and dont want to be Canadians.
For us, going back to our country mean Independence of Que'bec, unless 
Canada acknowledge the fact that we are not just 'yet an other culture' 
in the English-speaking Canadian melting-pot but a Distinct Society with 
more constitutional power.



bien a vous,

Michel J. Tremblay
tremblay@philmtl.philips.ca

Dieu et mon droit