Unrest in French Canada

MR. LANGLEY:

Mr. Minister, Distinguished Guests and members of the Empire Club of Canada. Just about a month ago today, our guest of honour was appointed Minister of Justice and Government Leader in the House of Commons, following a career, which to date, has seen this son of Montreal crowd a great deal of activity and achievement into his forty-seven years. The holder of a B.A. and an LL.B. from the University of Montreal, Mr. Favreau was called to the bar in 1940 and practised his profession until 1946. During this period, his very special talents caused him to be called to the service of several Royal Commissions, Senate inquiries and arbitration boards. Among his many activities, he has served as Secretary of the Montreal Bar Association, lectured at the University of Montreal and was a member of the Faculty of Law at the University of Ottawa from 1953-60. His intimate association with his present department commenced in 1955 with his appointment as Associate Deputy Minister of Justice--which appointment he held until 1960. His political career commenced in April 1963 with his election as the member for Papineau and his subsequent appointment as Minister of Citizenship and Immigration. Mr. Favreau has rapidly won the respect of members on both sides of the House for his ability, and dedication to his responsibilities, and he has earned our sincere gratitude for stepping into the breach as today's speaker on only one week's notice.

Gentlemen, The Minister of Justice, The Honourable Guy Favreau.

MR. FAVREAU:

It will soon be one hundred years since our forefathers, representing our two founding peoples, agreed in Charlottetown and finally in Quebec, upon the terms of the sacred pact which was to be translated by the British Parliament into the British North America Act. Throughout most of the ninety-seven years since then, Canada has been confronted by--and has survived--crisis after crisis. Yet the one we are going through now is probably deeper in its national significance, and more perturbing in its possibilities, than any in our history. Despite the ominous signs, let me quote what a noted English-speaking Canadian said on this subject here, in Toronto, earlier this year. He said:

"There is the revolution--I do not think this is too strong a word--that is going on in the Province of Quebec. Our French-Canadian friends and partners in Confederation have decided the time has come for them to get in step with the modern world. This means a new approach to education, an insistence upon greater say in economic affairs, a much more active role for the provincial government. Like other minority groups, the people of Quebec are jealous of their rights. They feel they have not been fairly treated.... It is in the best interest of all Canadians. . . that Quebec should move ahead--and move ahead quickly. We should sympathize with the efforts of French Canada to take her rightful place in Confederation. And we should not take offence because we find that some of the manifestations of catching up are irritating or annoying."

This, I believe, is a lucidly brief answer to the question which recurs when English-speaking Canadians discuss the accelerating nationalism in French Canada: " What does French Canada want?" they ask, or, "What does Quebec want?" The answer I have read was given by my colleague, the Honourable Walter Gordon, Minister of Finance, and I am sure, known personally to most of you.

I cannot attempt today to discuss all the details or to analyze all the factors involved -those details and factors upon which Mr. Gordon's call for moderation and under standing was based. Apart from the lack of time for such analysis, the causes underlying today's restlessness, like most human relations, cannot be defined with the clarity of a legal text, or charted with the cold precision of the drafting board. Even man's most concrete affairs are difficult to express in exact terms.

But aside from personal and individual grievances, French Canadians collectively have expressed at least three basic causes for unrest and dissatisfaction:

1. Whoever's responsibility it may have been, or is now, French Canadians find that after ninety-seven years in Confederation they have not gained the position, the influence, the recognition nor the benefits that their status as full partners should have brought them.
2. French Canada believes that the contractual provisions established between her and the rest of Canada in 1867, provisions which guaranteed the use of French as one of Canada's two official languages in affairs of state, in a federal Parliament, in federal courts--as well as in all provincial matters in Quebec--have in effect been ignored to the point of being allowed to lapse. French Canadians complain that there has been a general disregard of the French language as one of this country's Official languages--even in dealings between federal institutions and French Canadians.
3. Finally, French Canada finds itself in a position of near economic subservience to Canada's English-speaking majority. Her people feel deeply that the time has come--indeed, that it is their duty--to bring about economic liberation, and its corresponding social equality.

I can assure you, however, that seriously-minded citizens in my province, and by these I mean the honest and realistic people of sound judgment who form the great majority in French Canada, do not for a moment subscribe to the belief that this unhappy state is a result of a deliberate conspiracy on the part of their English-speaking partners in Confederation. Reasonable French Canadians do not accuse English-Speaking Canadians of conspiring either to rob them of their lawful rights or to make them subservient. They recognize that the reasons for Quebec's unfair situation--and I use the word "unfair" with all the objectivity at my command--the reasons are much more complex than conveyed in a mere accusation.

The reasons, the causes--many of them at least--are inherent in the nature of French Canada itself. They have been made more debilitating by the indifference of English Canada to them.

On the one hand, there is no denying that French Canadians have very often failed in the past to exercise their guaranteed language rights. On the other hand, it is only recently that the general Canadian public has become aware of the fact that, in practice, French Canadians have too frequently been denied their language rights by officious, insensitive, unthinking individuals in places of at least the appearance of authority.

This is changing. Most French Canadians now know that their partners have recently taken significant steps towards assuring the exercise and preservation of French Canadian rights. Throughout the federal civil service and in many Canadian businesses and industries--indeed, especially right here in Toronto--use of the French language more widely than ever before is now encouraged. If I may digress a moment, Mr. Chairman, I would like to repeat another tribute which I have made before to this city: to the constructive contribution being made to objective discussion of the problems we are discussing by the editorial writers and almost all the columnists of the Toronto newspapers. They are in the vanguard of the movement towards that lasting, strong and true Confederation we seek. I have said before that they provide an example of that incisive moderation and impartial common sense so desperately needed in seeking solutions to constitutional problems and the other general problems of French Canada in relation to the rest of Canada.

Returning to the factors which have contributed, historically, to today's problems: to explain the economic inferiority in which French Canadians have found them selves, certain historic and social facts must be recognized. At the very time the pact was made which resulted in the creation of this great new country, Canada, the English- speaking partners--chiefly of Scottish, English and Irish origin--were already in control of finance, business and industry. The French Canadian leaders--the educated--were then almost exclusively members of a few professions which have since become traditional in Quebec--notaries, lawyers and doctors. For more than three-quarters of a century, Quebec's system contributed to this educational vacuum: it did not provide sufficient incentive, or contain sufficient sophistication, to guide students into professions such as engineering, architecture, and general commerce. Thus, lacking such incentives, Quebec failed to create the essential supply of French Canadians trained and prepared to engage in trade, industry, finance--in those fields which are closer to the actual control or direction of a provincial economy.

For this reason, the forces and trends which have moulded Quebec's economy have, to a very great extent, by-passed French Canadians. Many major enterprises and businesses in Quebec, in those circumstances, came under the control and have remained under the direction of English-speaking Canadians or foreign investors. And for the most part, this controlling element adopted English as the language of communication.

Added to this was the fact that in the vital sixteen years preceding the present Lesage government--1944 to 1960--Quebec's educational system was permitted to stagnate still farther--to remain oblivious to the new, modern and dynamic developments in the field of education. Here, then, is another reason for the situation that developed. And its effects were multiplied--for during this same damaging period of educational stagnation, big companies and industries, many of which had their head offices or principal interests outside Quebec, failed to notice--or at least, certainly failed to concern themselves--with the natural and visible frustrations which such a state of affairs was intensifying. Only in very recent years have most of these major interests discovered that French Canadians--their largest labour force--naturally expect to serve, to receive instructions and generally to be communicated with in their own French language.

There was another failure. Throughout this period, English-speaking Canadians, secure and prosperous in Quebec, failed to recognize any necessity or obligation to prepare French Canadians for key positions in their trade or business. Promotion above a certain level generally went, automatically, to English-speaking employees. It is not surprising that the campaign of the Lesage government during the last provincial election was based--and very successfully so--on the slogan "Maitres chez nous", Masters in our own house! That movement towards economic liberation, undertaken three years ago by the Lesage government, is based on two fundamental assumptions which I doubt that any of you, gentlemen, would challenge as being either improper or extreme: One is that the people of Quebec should--with equity and justice--regain or gain a measure of control over and benefit from the natural resources within their province. The second is that a totally renewed, modernized and universal system of education in Quebec is essential to this purpose.

Nationalization of the hydro-electric network was a step towards implementing the first principle. Initiation of a wide range of educational reforms is implementing the second. They include free universal secondary education, in many cases up to second year university; emphasis on engineering, industrial and business courses--and their important adjunct, vocational training.

I have dealt with the frustrations arising from a backward educational system and non-Quebec control of business. But it has been the federal civil service, in most sectors and in most areas, which has caused the strongest and deepest-rooted frustration over the years in Quebec. Until fifteen or twenty years ago, there may have been some justification for the small number of French-speaking Canadians in the senior levels of Canada's Civil Service: there were few French Canadians sufficiently qualified for such work, or, if qualified, prepared to move to Ottawa. This reflected the inferior scope and standards of education in French Canada.

Such rationalization--or justification--could not, however, explain why so few French Canadians had been allowed to fill junior positions--which, in a proper system, would have prepared them for competition and promotion up the ladder. Compounding this has been English Canada's indifference to French-speaking civil service personnel, and to their use of the French language. The almost total absence of French as a tool in daily administration and communication in Canada's capital itself, and the indifference of English-speaking to the use of French even in Quebec, has understandably, I think, created the French Canadian feeling of being strangers in their own home. The compounded effect has been made more serious and dangerous because the federal government, its departments, divisions and agencies, were for decades the principal asset which French Canadians visibly shared with their English-speaking partners. When indifference even in this area resulted in their language being unrecognized and brushed aside, a strong push was given to the reactions which feed the present so-called quiet revolution in Quebec.

I realize that many people here are still amazed at the extent of this reaction. They consider it--very wrongly, I might say--to be exaggerated, sentimental, based on false and emotional pride. It is based on harsh realities and deep frustrations!

May I suggest, briefly, an effective way for Englishspeaking Canadians to develop a sympathy, if not an empathy, for their French-speaking partners--a way to place heart and mind on the wave length of Quebec feelings? Let them play a little game called "English Canada"-pretending that English Canadians were, and remain, the minority partner in Confederation. Pretend that in 1867, their forefathers entered a pact which, in fact, guaranteed that English would be recognized and used in all federal fields, on an equal footing with the French.

Then consider the reaction when, over many decades, their letters to the federal government were answered in French ... when, in phoning Ottawa, calls were taken by operators unable to answer in English ... when, finally fed up, they visited their nation's capital and found that everyone--civil servants, messengers, elevator boys, waitresses--spoke French only and considered them impudent to expect service or information in other than French. In these circumstances, would our English-speaking Canadians have felt at home in Canada? Wouldn't they have reacted collectively to the indifference of the French majority and demanded that the use of two official languages, as spelled out in the Federal compact, be respected and applied?

This is the simple request of French Canadians today. I am glad to say that improvements are already visible, and more are under way. All Canada has become aware of the problem. The Prime Minister and the federal government are seeking the corrective measures so desperately needed. I for one am confident that the work of the Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism--as well as the measures introducing more general use of French in the Civil Service--will dispel much of the present uneasiness.

Before closing, however, I would like to mention some, important things that French Canadians are not seeking. They are not seeking imposition of universal bilingualism across Canada; they seek only the restoration--and safe- guarding -of that bilingualism which never should have disappeared from the administration of Canada's affairs, nor from communication between French and English in the Province Of Quebec. They do not seek to revolutionize the Civil Service, to see unilingual personnel who have never become conversant in French, demoted, or refused promotion.

I know that this fear is real among certain civil servants. Let me say to them today that the very justice and true Canadianism which prompted the federal government to implement the bilingualism I have described, will prevent such hardship and injustice. The transition to a broader and more general bilingualism in the Civil Service of Canada should be envisioned with a sense of the fullest reassurance in this respect. I know that our goal cannot be achieved without the full understanding, support and co-operation of all Civil Service personnel.

In summary, the aspirations of French Canada--the conditions on which French Canadians must base their continuing destiny in Confederation--are these: They must be made to know, to feel deep in their hearts, that they are at home in Canada; that Ottawa is as truly their Capital as it is yours; that they are full participants in Canada's political and economic destiny; that their fate no longer depends--or appears to depend--on extraneous forces. Let all of Canada give to French Canada the evidence that all Canadians are truly partners, equal alike in the economic, the commercial, the industrial, the cultural and the political life of our country.

Canada's answers to the questions asked of her will come, like the questions, neither exclusively from the English-speaking nor exclusively French-speaking Cana dians. All of us must seek the answers in the goal of Confederation, in our forefathers' reasons for establishing unity and for maintaining duality. We must meet in the streets, sit at the conference tables, unite in our work, our studies, our homes without prejudice, without fears, without suspicions, without preconceived answers. While affirming our aspirations and our attitudes--whether mutual or divergent--we must replace over-wrought emotionalism with reason and earnest.

We must--all of us--denounce the little men who twist French Canadian aspirations, with racist overtones, into issues which pit our peoples one against the other. We must together expose those who opportunistically incite in new Canadians, fear and unrest over our use of the terms bilingualism and biculturalism. This aspect of what we are discussing-the essential multi-culture of Canada-is a subject worth much longer discussion. As your recent Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, I feel most strongly on this aspect--and most deeply that the divisive tactics being employed to create ambiguities and suspicion are small, mean, hypocritical and dangerous to all Canadians.

May I note in closing, Mr. Chairman, that this Club, the Empire Club of Canada, was, with the Royal Commonwealth Society, founded for a single purpose and with a common aim: the strengthening of the bonds of Unity within the Empire and now the Commonwealth.

I urge you today, as Canadians, to aggressively accept as an essential in your objective, this now more immediate and more proximate challenge: the strengthening of the bonds Of unity within our beloved country, Canada. All of us here have common cause--that cause which is characterized by Our mutual desire to live together in happiness and prosperity, in a Confederation which is true and rewarding.

If all of you, in your respective circles of influence, accept your responsibility--as I promise to accept mine--and if all of us prosecute our purpose with the same vigorous enthusiasm demonstrated by the Empire Club in the past--we will, together, see our common cause triumph.

Thanks

Thanks of the meeting were expressed by Past President Donald H. Jupp.