The Quebec Problem

The failure of the May 1980 Quebec referendum on sovereignty and the ratification in 1982 of a Canadian constitution, over Quebec's vehement objection but with the acquiescence of all other provinces, would appear to indicate that the likelihood of Quebec's independence has been sharply reduced, if not eliminated. Not so, is the considered judgment

Normand Lester, a journalist with Radio-Canada (the French-language equivalent of the CBC) stirred up a hornet’s nest when he revealed that the federal government had secretly funded television’s Heritage Minutes which, in his view, provided a sanitized version of our shared history. He was subsequently, controversially, let go. The Black Book of Canada is his impassioned defence of his native province and an implicit repudiation of the anglophone media’s unfair, yet all-too-common attacks on Quebec and Quebecers. While English Canada may think itself a “just society,” in this highly controversial book – which sold 50,000 copies in French – Normand Lester chronicles English-Canadian intolerance: the expulsion of the Acadians; Lord Durham’s anti-French policies; the hanging of Louis Riel; R. B. Bennett’s funding of anti-Semitic publications; and the internment of Japanese Canadians in the Second World War. Lester argues that the myth of two equal, amicable co-founders of the nation, a myth actively promoted by the federal government over recent decades, ignores the fact that there will always be two incompatible national histories.

Decentralization may help preserve peace in one country or in one region, but may have the opposite effect in others.

This new edition of Marcel Rioux's bestselling history of Quebec offers an interpretation of the dramatic events of the seventies and the victory of the Parti Quebecois. Written by an advocate of Quebec independence, this lucid and scholarly book is the best introduction available for English-language readers to the intellectual foundations of the independence movement. Quebec in Question has sold more than 35,000 copies and continues to be widely read and referred to.

Analyzes the development and implications of the Quebec sovereignty movement, and discusses financial considerations such as interest rates, the right to use the Canadian dollar, and defense spending. Details Quebec's economic and political development since 1976, and the Meech Lake and Charlottetown accords. Paper edition (unseen), $17.95. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR