National Patriots' Day in Quebec
Honour the Memory of Those Who Fought in the 1837-38 Rebellion to Vest Sovereign Decision-Making Power in the People
Patriots' day celebration in Montreal, May 21, 2018.
Victoria Day, which this year falls on
Monday,
May 20, is celebrated as National Patriots' Day in Quebec, the
day which pays tribute to the sacrifices and deeds of the
patriots of Lower Canada in the rebellion against the British of
1837-38. Marches, historic exhibits, conferences and performances
take place to mark the rebellion of 1837-1838 and to honour the
memory of the Patriots who gave their lives or were forced into
exile in the struggle to end British colonial rule by
establishing a Republic of Quebec.
 The project of the Patriots for
the republic was brutally suppressed and, on the basis of that
suppression, the British established what was called responsible
government. They defined rights in Canada based on what were called two
founding nations and established what are called the democratic
institutions by preserving the role of the royal prerogative and
privilege. This
government vested sovereignty -- the decision-making power -- in
the Queen of England, as the artificial person of state, which was
supposed to be neutral and above the warring factions within the
ruling class. It maintained strict dictatorship over the propertyless
majority and government of accommodation so long as the colony's ruling
classes served the interests of the British Empire. This division of
the polity between those who rule in the name of an artificial person
of state called the sovereign, and those who are ruled exists to this
day. Today, governments are brought to power through an electoral
system over which the people exercise no control. They are instruments
of nation-wrecking, actively involved in U.S. imperialist wars of
aggression and regime change to realize their striving for world
domination. The project for which the Patriots fought lives on today in
the nation-building project of the workers and people to solve the
crisis of the democratic institutions in their favour, engage in modern
nation-building to change the direction of the economy, humanize the
social and natural environment and make Canada and Quebec a Zone
for Peace.
The 1837-38 Patriots' Uprising is an important event in
the
history of Quebec and Canada. Its significance must be grasped to
understand the present-day situation and not be misled by
illusions that what are called the democratic institutions are
immutable and that the people are destined to be deprived of
decision-making power. On the contrary, the establishment of a
modern Quebec state on its own basis remains necessary to settle
the crisis of the democratic institutions in a manner that
favours the people by ending the stranglehold of the institutions
established out of the suppression of the nation-building project
the Patriots put forward in 1837-1838. These so-called democratic
institutions were based on the arrangements the British oligarchs
found "reasonable" to strengthen British colonial rule after the
English defeated the French at the Plains of Abraham in 1759 and
Quebec passed from being a French colony to a British colony. The
British power divided the people on an ethnocultural basis and
enshrined this division in the Act of Union of 1840. Ever
since then, the line of divide and rule has served first the
British and then the Anglo-Canadian state, today integrated into
the U.S. war machine, to impose the dictate of the ruling elites
on both the Quebec and the Canadian peoples as well as the First
Nations. It is clear that after the rebellion of 1837-1838, all
those patriots who refused to conciliate with these so-called
reasonable accommodations were either hanged or exiled and with
this infamy, the present democratic institutions of
so-called responsible government came into being to keep the
people out of the power-sharing arrangements.
 Today, to realize the cause for
which the Patriots fought in
1837-1838, the working class must constitute the nation and vest
sovereignty in the people. The people must be empowered so that
they become the decision-makers in all political, economic,
social and cultural affairs that concern them and their nation.
This need is all the more urgent as the governments of Quebec and
Canada intensify the sell-out of the natural and human resources
and establish new arrangements to facilitate the political,
economic and military integration of Canada and Quebec into the
U.S. imperialist war machine and restructure the state in the
service of the narrow private interests of powerful oligopolies
which operate on a global basis. To cover up the fact that they are in
the service of these narrow private interests, they blame the people
for being racist, anti-immigrant and narrow-minded. Their refusal to
open society's path to progress is seen in increasing attempts to push
the politics of division in the name of rights and scandal so that the
people are reduced to a role of witnessing the daily spectacle of
political factions challenging each other as to who will best represent
the values they allege the people hold dear to get away with imposing
different versions of their neo-liberal nation-wrecking agenda. All of
it destroys the kind of arrangements the people require to flourish.
On this occasion, TML Weekly honours the
Patriots from
Upper and Lower Canada who fought and gave their lives for the
cause of society's progress. Today's patriots honour their memory
by advancing that cause within the present conditions. The
struggle of the peoples of Quebec, the First Nations and Canada
to vest sovereign decision-making power in themselves is more
important than ever.
This article was published in
Volume 49 Number 18 - May 18, 2019
Article Link:
National Patriots' Day in Quebec: Honour the Memory of Those Who Fought in the 1837-38 Rebellion to Vest Sovereign Decision-Making Power in the People
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
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