05/20/2024
HOLIDAY, THE REASON MATTERS LITTLE
By Sergio Martinez
Montreal has had a beautiful sunny day today, very appropriate for a holiday. In my neighbourhood, in Percy Walter Park, people have taken their dogs for a walk, and the children have also congregated in their sector along Dr. Penfield Avenue.
Curiously, it is a holiday with a double motive, on the one hand, in all of Canada including this province, it is Victoria Day / Fête de la reine since 1952 although in its definitive form since 1957. On the other hand, in Quebec, it is known as Patriots' Day, in commemoration of the 1837-38 rebellion whose main objective was to achieve a responsible government. A curious mixture, considering that the patriots fought against the military forces of the then-British Queen Victoria.
Because of my political background, celebrating the monarchical institution does not cause me great enthusiasm. Still, on the other hand, it must be said that the eagerness of some people in this province to always look for a way to erase the Canadian national presence seems childish. If the federal government says “white” they say “black” or vice versa. That is to say, to contradict without a valid reason for the sake of contradiction. On the other hand, celebrating the patriots of others does not give me much enthusiasm either. Not to mention that words like “fatherland” and “patriot” are not among my favourite words either, being here in the good company of people like Karl Marx and Rosa Luxemburg, both very critical of anything that smells of nationalism.
In any case, and just for historical information for those who don't know, the tribute to Victoria in Canada comes simply from the fact that she was the reigning monarch when this country was created in 1867. A monument in the square that bears her name and an avenue in Montreal pay tribute to her; in the province of British Columbia, the capital city is called Victoria. It is also said that she personally chose Ottawa as the capital of the then-new country because of its location right between its English-speaking and French-speaking parts. Whether that is a reason to honour her may be a matter of political and historical judgment.
As for Patriots Day, this is a relatively new name. Until recently it was known in Quebec as Dollard Day (after Dollard des Ormeaux), that is until it was realized that this Dollard had “distinguished himself” in the times of French colonization as being very efficient in killing Indians (the Iroquois finally got rid of him at the battle of Long Sault).
It is also important to note that contrary to what is disseminated in official Québécois history, the Rebellion of 1837-38 was not strictly a solely Francophone movement but an armed uprising that occurred almost simultaneously both in Lower Canada (as Quebec was then known) where it began on November 9, 1837, and in Upper Canada (present-day Ontario) where it broke out on December 5 of the same year.
Nor were these rebellions linguistically divided, Louis Joseph Papineau, leader of the movement in Lower Canada had as one of his main supporters the Irishman Edmund Bailey O'Callaghan. In Upper Canada, meanwhile, the leader of the movement was William Lyon Mackenzie, who, like Papineau had been politically active in the legislature.
The main demand of the revolutionaries was to have an accountable government, i.e. one that was answerable to the legislature (parliament). Up to that time, the decision-maker was the governor, appointed by London, the parliament consisted of an appointed legislative council and an elected assembly, but whose powers were limited.
The rebellion in both Upper and Lower Canada was defeated by the obvious greater British military power, besides, not everyone in the population supported the uprising, the ruling classes in both the English and French sectors distrusted the radical ideas of Lyon Mackenzie and Papineau, the latter also did not have the support of the Catholic Church that considered him “anticlerical”. At that time, the Church had an enormous influence in Quebec, which lasted until the 1960s.
The official Québécois history with its nationalist imprint also fails to mention that, while the rebellion failed, it did leave the way open for the goal of a government that would be accountable to a popularly elected parliament to be finally achieved, and that goal would materialize a few years later with the formation of Canada in 1867. The rebels of 1837-38 did not have a very homogeneous position beyond their central demand for an accountable government. Some wanted to make a republic, others to maintain the monarchy, and even some, like Papineau himself, advocated annexing both Upper and Lower Canada to the United States (see the Montreal Annexation Manifesto, sponsored by Papineau in 1849).
It was never in the objective of the Patriots to create an independent Lower Canada (Quebec), and in fact several of those who participated in the armed uprising later made politics in the new country, such as Papineau, who was a parliamentarian in the transition period before the formation of Canada, or Georges-Etienne Cartier who was even one of the founders of Canada (Fathers of Confederation).
Some Québécois nationalists have seized on the popular imagery created around that epic moment, which must certainly have been the Rebellion of 1837-38, but that movement was the precursor of the Canada that exists today, not of an independent Quebec. Ironies of history perhaps.
Be that as it may, a holiday to enjoy, without the reason being very important, what is important is --instead of repeating mere slogans-- to know why those symbols are there, whether they are Queen Victoria or the Patriots.
