On the Aboriginal question, the CAQ government would do well to hone its nationalist reflexes. This should also be the priority of the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, supported by Minister Kateri Champagne Jourdain, Quebec’s first Aboriginal-appointed minister.
Posted at 6:00 am
To be a nationalist means to believe in the worth of nations, those groupings of people who share a language, a culture, a territory, a history. To be a nationalist means to believe that the diversity of languages and cultures, or more precisely of “collective personalities”, as René Lévesque would have said, enriches humanity.
language
A Quebec nationalist knows how difficult it is to preserve one’s language in North America. Quebecers make up 2% of the continent, Aborigines 2% of Quebec. When passing Bill 96 to protect French, the government did not take their languages into account. He recovered afterwards and today even speaks of Bill 101 “to protect indigenous languages”. That’s significant progress, but his first instinct wasn’t right.
Another linguistic element. The four most commonly used Aboriginal languages in Canada are spoken in Quebec.
Additionally, in Quebec, 80% of Aboriginal people living in the community speak an Aboriginal language, a percentage nearly double the second-ranked province of Manitoba’s 46%.
Quebec is at the forefront of states where Aboriginal languages have any real chance of survival, it must remain so: it is essential to Aboriginal nations and it is a source of pride for the nation of Quebec.
Culture
Language is not just a means of communication, it is the carrier of a culture, and culture is the strength of a nation. A nationalist therefore wants to protect the cultural characteristics of his nation, for example its literature, its cinema, its poetry, its traditions.
Central to the culture of several Aboriginal nations, particularly the Innu, is the woodland caribou. Her covenant with him is of the holy order. Their traditional way of life (food, clothing, tools), their spirituality, their nomadic life, in short, their entire culture is built around the caribou. During the 2014 election, Philippe Couillard launched the following odious phrase: “I will not sacrifice a job for the caribou. »
These aren’t jobs the Innu would lose if the caribou went away, it’s part of their soul. If protecting biodiversity isn’t enough for him, the government should protect the forest caribou in the name of protecting the Innu culture. For nationalists, that should be self-evident.
Another example. Spatial planning is the impression (in the sense of pressure) of a culture, an identity, on a territory. Next year, the Quebec government will adopt a plan to implement a first Quebec policy on architecture and land use planning. Indigenous nations need to find tools there to shape their culture on their territory.
Education, Justice, Social Affairs
Being nationalist also means wanting our institutions to reflect our culture in the way they operate and act. Take Quebec solidarity, for example. Our ability to combine our strengths is a quality that makes us an exceptional state in North America. This solidarity, born of the obligation to rely only on ourselves for a long time, is expressed in the solidity of our social safety net, in our credit unions, in the number of our social economy companies, in the great accessibility of our educational institutions, etc.
Aborigines also want the institutions that support them to be inclusive of their identity. They want more restorative justice in the justice system. They want to direct the actions of the DYP for their youth, they want a health network that gives families more space. They want a school that embraces their language, their history, their traditions and even their teaching methods. A Quebec nationalist should recognize this urge for autonomy and seek to respond to it.
During their tenure, Minister Kateri Champagne Jourdain and the Minister for Indigenous Affairs were to establish that the Nation of Québec must always act toward Indigenous peoples as it expects us to, namely, to help solidify the identity of the Eleven Indigenous people of Quebec and to incorporate them into the build with