The death of the columnist and former candidate for leadership of the Parti Québécois has sparked consternation among Quebec nationalists. According to many, his book The Battle of London is a very important work in Canadian political debate.
• Also read: Columnist and ex-candidate for leadership of the PQ Frédéric Bastien dies at the age of 53
• Also read: Frédéric Bastien’s final column: How Trudeau fooled Quebecers in the 1980 referendum
“I would like to express my condolences to the family and friends of Mr Frédéric Bastien. He was in love with Quebec and its history. How sad,” Prime Minister François Legault wrote in a message published on social media.
Mr Bastien died on Tuesday aged 53, grieving the loss of his wife and three children.
For his part, PQ chief Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, who was Mr Bastien’s opponent in the party’s 2020 election campaign, underscored the columnist’s commitment to Quebec.
- Listen to Murielle Chatelier, a citizen of the Association des Québécois unis contre le racialisme, interviewed on Richard Martineau’s show QUB radio :
“It is with regret that I learned of the death of Frédéric Bastien […]. “Frédéric was a lifelong activist who dedicated a large part of his life to the Quebec cause,” he expressed on Twitter.
According to former PQ President Jean-François Lisée, Frédéric Bastien “put his intense energy and intelligence at the service of Quebec, which he loved passionately”. “He was just getting started,” he wrote on Twitter. It must serve as an inspiration for us in the future.”
Quebec Conservative Party leader Éric Duhaime was shocked by the news. “I have known Frédéric for more than 30 years. We were the same age, had similar interests, shared friends, and hung out in the same circles. A political opponent, not an ideological one. “A good right-wing nationalist,” he also wrote on social media.
Archive photo, MARTIN ALARIE
The Battle of London
In 2013, Frédéric Bastien caused an uproar in Canadian political debate with the publication of his book The Battle of London. In preparing this work, Mr. Bastien had access to unpublished archives by submitting requests for access to information in the UK.
“We had never seen a history book that raises such a storm. The National Assembly had unanimously adopted a motion requiring the state to publish all documents related to the patriation of the constitution and the Supreme Court had dealt with the matter,” explains historian Éric Bédard, who knew Mr Bastien well.
“He worked on this book alone for almost seven years with no institutional support and almost no grant, and yet he wrote a remarkable book,” he adds.
“It’s a deeply original book,” adds constitutional law professor Patrick Taillon.
“He had had the wisdom to analyze repatriation from the perspective of London, which at the time was the only body that could change our constitution. It arose from the small daily hum of the experts of the two solitudes, who looked at the question from a certain distance,” adds Mr. Taillon.
Highlights from the Battle of London
– Bastien analyzes the traceability of the Canadian constitution using British archives.
– During his research, he found that a fundamental rule of democracy, the separation between political power and the courts, had been violated.
– The Battle of London shows that there were troubled relationships between Supreme Court justices, Canadian politicians and British officials.