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May
18,
2013
- No. 19
Nation-Building
Project of Today's Quebec Patriots
The
Patriots
of
1837-1838
and the
Principles of Nation-Building
Quebec Patriots Day
Long Live the Nation-Building Project of
Today's Quebec
Patriots!
Today, the Quebec nation marks Patriots Day. Patriots
Day celebrates the
striving of the people to affirm their right to be. Beginning in the
spring of
1837, when the British Crown formally rejected the demands of the
Legislative
Assembly of Lower Canada included in the 92 Resolutions of 1834,
numerous
mass meetings broke out across Quebec where the people spoke and
demanded
their democratic rights.
 In the midst of this
affirmation of the people's will,
the Patriots
proclaimed "by order of the provisional government" an important
manifesto
called "Declaration of Independence of the Republic of Lower Canada."
In it
they declared the principles and democratic rights of a Republic.
Section 3 of
the declaration calls for the defence of the rights of all: "Under the
free
government of Lower Canada, all individuals will enjoy the same rights:
the
natives will no longer be submitted to any civil disqualification and
will enjoy
the same rights as all other citizens of Lower Canada." Section 15
proclaims
that the people will author their own constitution: "At the earliest
occasion the
people must choose delegates according to the present division of the
country
in counties, cities and boroughs who will form a convention or
legislative body
to draft a constitution according to the needs of the country, in
accordance
with the provisions of this Declaration, subject to modification
according to the
will of the people."
 The 1837-38 uprising was
crushed through brutal force,
including the
suspension of habeas corpus, mass arrests, burning of homes,
the
hanging of 12 patriots and forcing of 64 others into exile. More than
1,700
were imprisoned following the suspension of habeas corpus. In
Montreal alone in 1838, 816 people were arrested out of a population of
30,000, which translates into 40,000 people out of Montreal's
present-day
population. Of that number, 108 were court-martialled. Hundreds were
forced
to flee to the U.S. to escape arrest, including 10 accused of "murder"
who
faced the death penalty if they ever returned. It marked the
suppression of a
modern Quebec nation-state whose existence has been denied ever since
by
depriving the Quebec people, irrespective of their national origin,
language or
creed, of their right to self-determination as an independent legal
entity with
the right to form a free and equal union with the rest of Canada if
they so
decide of their own free will.
The 1837-38 Patriots Uprising is an important event in
the history of
Quebec and Canada whose significance must be grasped in order to
understand
the present-day situation and not be mislead by the blackmail of those
establishment forces which claim that affirming Quebec's sovereignty
will lead
to the "destruction of Canada." On the contrary, the establishment of
the
modern state of Quebec remains necessary to settle the constitutional
crisis in
a manner which 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 are the present democratic
institutions based on "reasonable accommodations," 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 an English colony. The British
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 Canadian state to impose the dictate of the ruling
elite 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 infamous act, the present democratic
institutions of
so-called responsible government came into being to keep the people out
of the
power-sharing arrangements.
The present situation shows that the cause for which the
Patriots fought in
1837-1838 today takes the form of the need for the working class to
constitute
itself the nation and vest sovereignty in the people to make them 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 annexation of Canada and Quebec to the United
States
of North American Monopolies and restructure the state in the service
of the
most powerful monopolies as part of U.S. empire-building. The more they
refuse to share power with anyone, the more they talk of "reasonable
accommodations."
 As a result of this
nation-wrecking agenda, the ruling
elites have mired
Quebec and Canada in an unprecedented constitutional and political
crisis.
Their refusal to open society's path to progress is seen in increasing
attempts
to push politics of division based on language, national origin,
culture, belief,
colour of skin, gender or any other consideration. The people are
witnessing
the daily spectacle of political factions challenging each other as to
who will
best represent Quebec values, or reducing the identity of the Quebec
people to
a linguistic issue, or dividing the people on an ethnocultural basis so
as to get
away with imposing a new "reasonable accommodation" to suppress their
right
to be and determine for themselves the kind of arrangements they
require to
flourish.
On this occasion, TML salutes all those who
espouse the cause
of the Quebec Patriots, especially those who are determined to
elaborate a
nation-building project consistent with the demands of the times.
Let the Working Class Constitute Itself
the Nation and
Vest Sovereignty in the People! Sovereignty Yes! Annexation No!
The Patriots of 1837-1838 and the
Principles of Nation-Building
- Christine Dandenault -
Excerpts from presentation delivered by Christine
Dandenault of the Marxist-Leninist Party of Quebec (PMLQ) at the
Conference on the Future of Quebec, Montreal, June 20, 1998.
***
 When decisions are taken
from above and the interests of
the people are
left out of the equation, no good can come of it. Whether we speak of
the
Treaty of Paris in 1763, or the Quebec Act, 1774, to 1791,
1841-48, 1867, 1930, or 1982 to the present, decisions were taken from
above,
in which the polity has been a form of organization and a citizen in it
has
never been the starting point of any agreement or proclamation.
Proclamations
about the form of executive power and on the sharing of powers have
been
issued but there has never been an explicit treatment of democracy.
Unless
today we ensure that there is an explicit treatment of democracy, we
will have
the same negative experience and thinking which exist at the federal
and
provincial levels at this time and which the people of Canada
experienced at
the time the British North America Act was imposed on them in
1867 and since then, incorporated into the present state.
In nation-building, there are some fundamental
principles which determine
the kind of nation which exists or is to exist. For instance, we have
to be careful not to found the nation on 19th century concepts of
ethnicity
as the British did in formulating the BNA Act, later turned into the
notion of
"two founding nations." On the contrary, we should begin with the
modern
definition according to which a modern polity is established which
recognizes
the collective rights of all the people of Quebec and vests sovereignty
in the
people. This is the only
sound foundation for a consistent democracy,
irrespective of what language a person may speak or what may be their
religion, race, colour of skin, gender, age, ability or lifestyle or
what political
and ideological opinions a citizen may hold.
Within the framework of a modern polity, the principle
of collective rights,
and not ethnicity, must be recognized, together with the rights of all
minorities
on account of their concrete objective reality. This includes the
rights of
women on account of their womanhood, Aboriginal peoples on the basis of
their right to determine their own affairs on their own lands, of all
national
minorities, and of all people with different lifestyles, abilities, the
elderly and
children, etc. Not least of these rights are the collective rights of
the workers
to job security and wages and working conditions commensurate with the
job
they perform. A consistently democratic outlook must be enshrined right
from
the beginning so that the future of Quebec, whether it opts for
independence
or not, will be an occasion to celebrate an historic advance, a
milestone in the
development of Quebec as it prepares to enter the 21st century.
Patriots Day march in
Montreal, near the Pied-du-Courant prison where many of the patriots
were imprisoned.
Today, the issue of nation-building concerns the people
of the entire world.
The neo-liberal offensive to sell out all the resources of nations,
especially the
human and natural resources, to serve the aim of making the monopolies
competitive on global markets has put this issue on the agenda of the
peoples
everywhere. The issue is of great urgency. This concern cannot be
dismissed
by portraying everything to do with nation-building as an issue of
separatism
versus federalism or which equates separatism with sovereignty and so
on, as
the federal Liberals and their fellow travellers are doing. Whether or
not
Quebec opts for independence, the approach towards nation-building will
determine the future of Quebec. Today the interests of the bourgeoisie
are not
identified with those of the nation. They lie in selling out all its
resources, in
using the state power to seize the entire social product produced by
the
working class to hand it over to those who invest it to make maximum
profits
for themselves. This is why the working class must constitute itself
the nation
and lead society so that it can advance.
As this project of nation-building unfolds, another
issue which has been
central to the struggles of the peoples of the entire world throughout
the 20th
century is brought to the fore, and that is the issue of where
sovereignty is
vested. Unless sovereignty is vested in the people, unless the
decision-making
power is put in the hands of the people and not in the hands of
political parties
which vie for power in the National Assembly, the people and their
concerns
will continue to be marginalized, causing the untold suffering they see
already
today going from bad to worse. All legislative power must be
subordinate to
the people and the executive power must be subordinate to the
legislative
power.
A lot is said about the democratic institutions in
Quebec, as is also the
case in the rest of Canada. The greatest illusions are created about
the system
of representative democracy right at the time that it is plain for all
to see that
this system does not represent them. The people exercise no control
over the
decisions which are taken within the arrangements under this system.
These
institutions, both within Quebec and across the country, are placed
there
according to the 19th century British experience in nation-building
which kept
the "Royal Prerogative," the essence of absolutism and of the archaic
notion
of the "divine right of kings," in the hands of a tiny group of people.
Whether
such a group is headed by a monarch, a president or a prime minister,
most
of the organs of power are either unelected or selected and elected
according
to a process which makes it impossible for the people to enjoy
consistent
democracy according to the principle "of the people, by the people and
for the
people."
 The formation of the Canadian Confederation in 1867 and
experience with
it since then has led to broad scale popular discontent, especially
during the
last few years. This is a fact of life. How can such a fact of life be
buried
under the propaganda barrage which claims that the issue is national
unity and
there is no other issue? Or the issue is deficit zero and there is no
other issue?
Such discontent in the political system is manifested in the lack of
credibility
of politicians, the political process and political institutions and
cabinet rule.
This is a problem facing all the peoples of Canada, irrespective of
where
they live. Such a negative experience must not be permitted to
undermine the
project of building the Quebec nation at this time, the Canadian nation
or the
First Nations.
The Marxist-Leninist Party of is of the
opinion that
unless such matters are discussed, the present situation holds grave
dangers for
the people. Any political project, alternative or otherwise, which does
not
eliminate the old arrangements and renew the democracy, no matter what
colours it presents itself in, will not succeed. This matter must be
given serious
treatment.
Today a profound disequilibrium has set in on the world
scale as well as
within the majority of countries as a result of the unrepresentative
nature of
the democracy and the struggle of the big powers and the monopoly
groups to
establish their domination over spheres of influence, sources of raw
materials
and cheap labour and markets for their goods and capital. Within this,
the
bourgeoisie and its political representatives are presenting the
anti-social
offensive as the only way to overcome the crisis of capitalism, forcing
the
peoples to submit to their dictate as if there is no choice, no
alternative. What
is not already settled by the legislatures will be. In this
regard,
[...] one law after
another is passed to
remove all the obstacles which interfere with the ability of the
monopolies to
make maximum profits. Coupled with this, more and more the demands of
the
people for a society which recognizes their claims upon it are turned
into law
and order matters. Through Rule by Decree, anything can be made legal
or
illegal irrespective of the justice of the cause. Through a massive
disinformation campaign, the righteousness of the cause is turned
upside down.
Shamelessly, those who are dictating everything present night as day
and day
as night as if words can mean anything they want and the people are
fools
who do not understand what is taking place at their expense.
Within this situation, the only opportunity being
provided to the people of
Quebec is to submit briefs to various hearings, whereupon their opinion
is
ignored or it is just the opinions of those they want to hear which are
called
for. This is pushing the youth and the poorest sections of the people
to take
desperate measures whereupon they are further criminalized.
Under the present arrangements, it is the National
Assembly in Quebec
under cabinet rule which has usurped the sovereign power. This is also
the
case in Ontario, in all the provinces and at the federal level. These
cabinets
have set themselves up as the all-powerful decision-making bodies which
hide
behind a veneer of mandates and democratic elections. This is not the
place to
discuss the merits or demerits of the British parliamentary system
which is
based on the royal prerogative, but what is crucial is to firmly grasp
that there
can be no such thing as a modern democracy in which it is not the
people who
decide what is to be done.
The processes which are taking place in Quebec and at
the federal level
ensure that more and more the people are being sidelined. The more they
are
sidelined, the more they are subjected to a propaganda barrage
according to
which what is being done is in the "public good." The destruction of
the
society is presented as the "public good." This shows the irrationality
which
is being imposed by repeating 19th century dogmas to justify the
unjustifiable.
Any process which does not strengthen the political
unity of the people
around the project of nation-building must be rejected. In this regard,
the Marxist-Leninist Party firmly rejects the line of the federal
Liberals according to whom
"national unity and territorial integrity" are one and the same thing.
National
unity is a matter of the political unity of the people and the
principle which
guides the political unity of the people is to strengthen the fraternal
links that
bind them as members of the polity. Territorial integrity on the other
hand is
not a principle. When the present boundaries of Quebec were determined
by
the British in 1840, fully half of the territory of Lower Canada was
carved out
and given to Upper Canada, present day Ontario. At the same time,
Ontario's
debt was handed over to the Quebec people to pay. All of this was done
to
make sure that the population of Quebec was decimated, throwing half of
it
into Ontario so that through the system of so-called representative
government,
Quebecers would not dominate the united assembly. Territorial integrity
was
not a principle then and it is not a principle today. The aim of the
British then
was to suppress the interests of the Quebec people through the force of
arms
and the deal-making in the name of responsible government. This is the
origin
of present-day democratic institutions and to claim that they do not
need to be
renovated is to make a statement which is foolish and self-serving to
the
extreme. To raise the issue of national unity based on territorial
integrity is to
declare that no problem will be resolved. It is a declaration of "no
war/no
peace" with the threat of war always uppermost.
Assembly of the Six
Counties on October 23 and October 24, 1837, a gathering of some 6,000
Patriots
held in
Saint-Charles, Lower Canada, in defiance of a British
proclamation forbidding public assemblies.
The independence of Quebec is used to cause utmost
confusion when in
fact, the first act of an independent people must be to vest
sovereignty in
themselves. This can be done by concentrating on ensuring that, as a
first step,
people carry out the discussion on the future of Quebec themselves.
They must
raise the level of their consciousness and organization with the aim of
creating
a society which is fit for human beings. How can these matters be
reduced to
whether or not a referendum is held and why should the issue of a
referendum,
be decided from above? Why should whether or not a referendum is held
be
used to blackmail the people with every kind of disaster? If a
referendum is
to take place to determine the future of Quebec, it is the people who
should
determine what the question should be in the referendum and this
question
should only pertain to whether or not the people want their independent
republic or not. The referendum question should be straightforward: "Do
you
agree that Quebec should become an independent Republic? Yes or No."
Should the people opt to declare independence, the
experience of the
peoples of the world with nation-building clearly shows that the next
logical
step must be the election of a Constitutional Convention. This
Convention
should be elected on the basis of people selecting candidates at their
work
places, educational institutions and neighbourhoods. This
Constitutional
Convention should draft the constitution. All the clauses of the
Constitution
which the Constitutional Convention cannot agree upon should be put to
vote
in a referendum. The voting age should be lowered to 14 in order to
involve
the youth in politics and nation-building at an early age. The
constitution thus
approved by the people must be considered the sovereign will of the
people
of Quebec and established as the fundamental law of the land on which
everything must rest.
Today, in order to avert redressing historical crimes,
the Liberals
self-righteously talk about self-government for the Native peoples, so
long as
they do not vest sovereignty in themselves, but when it comes to
Quebec, even
this concession is anathema. They have also started a controversy over
declaring Louis Riel, who was hanged as a traitor for establishing the
Manitoba nation, a father of Confederation. What about the Quebec
patriots?
There is a lot of self-righteous talk that Quebec is not a colony, but
all of this
is to deny the present realities and to prevent the people from solving
problems
in a manner which favours them. The fact remains that the modern nation
which the patriots fought for in 1837-38 based on the recognition of
rights as
they were conceived by the progressive forces throughout the Americas
at that
time, was suppressed.
The Declaration of Independence
of Lower
Canada presented by Robert Nelson, one of the patriot leaders of the
Rebellion, at Clarenceville in 1838 fully elaborates the conception
of
democratic rights for all those considered to be members of the polity
at that
time.
Declaration of Independence of the Republic of Lower
Canada*
 
Declaration of
Independence of Lower Canada and Robert Nelson, President of the
Provisional Government.
Caldwell's Manor
(NOYAN), February 28, 1838
WHEREAS the solemn contract established with the
people of Lower
Canada as recorded in the register of the Statutes of the Kingdom of
Britain
and Ireland, as Ch. 31 of the Act passed in the 3rd year of the rule of
King
George III, has been continuously violated by the British government
and our
rights encroached upon; and whereas our humble petitions, addresses,
protests
and remonstrances against this prejudicial and unconstitutional
behaviour have
been in vain;
WHEREAS the British government has disposed of our
revenue
without the constitutional consent of our local legislature, robbed our
treasury,
arrested and imprisoned a large number of our fellow citizens, spread
across
the country a mercenary army whose presence has caused dismay and
alarm,
whose tracks are red with the blood of our people, which has burned our
villages to ashes, desecrated temples and sown terror and desolation
throughout the country; and whereas we can no longer suffer the
repeated
violations of our most sacred rights and patiently endure the numerous
outrages and cruelties of the government of Lower Canada,
We, in the name of the people of Lower Canada,
acknowledging the
decree of divine providence that says we can overthrow a government
that has
violated the object and intent of its creation to choose the form of
government
that will restore the use of justice, ensure domestic peace, see to the
common
defence, elevate the general well-being and guarantee us and our
descendants
the benefits of civil and religious freedom;
 Solemnly declare that
1. From this day on, the people of Lower Canada is
free from allegiance
to Britain and the political continuity between Lower Canada and the
British
rule is broken.
2. A republican form of government best suits the
needs of Lower
Canada, which is on this day proclaimed a Republic.
3. Under the free government of Lower Canada, all
individuals will
enjoy the same rights: the natives will no longer be submitted to any
civil
disqualification and will enjoy the same rights as all other citizens
of Lower
Canada.
4. All union between the Church and the State is by
the present
declared dissolved and all person will have the right to freely
practice the
religion or belief dictated by his or her conscience.
5. The feudal or seigniorial tenure of the land is
by the present
abolished, as completely as if such tenure never existed in Canada.
6. Any person who bears arms or otherwise assists
Canada in its
fight for emancipation is and will be discharged of all real or
supposed debts
or obligations resulting from arrears of seigniorial rights existing
prior to this
day.
7. The customary dower is henceforth abolished and
prohibited.
8. Imprisonment for debt will no longer take place
except in certain
cases of fraud which will be specified in an act to be adopted to this
end by
the Legislature of Lower Canada at a later time.
9. The death penalty will no longer be pronounced
nor executed,
except in the case of murder.
10. All mortgages on the land will be special and,
to be valid, will
need to be registered with offices to be created to this end by an act
of the
Legislature of Lower Canada.
11. The freedom and independence of the press will
prevail in all
public matters and affairs.
12. Trial by jury is ensured by the people of Lower
Canada in its
broadest and most liberal sense in all criminal trials and in civil
trials beyond
a certain amount to be determined by the Legislature of Lower
Canada.
13. Since general and public education is necessary
and is owed to
the people by the government, an act establishing it will be passed as
soon as
circumstances allow.
14. To ensure electoral enfranchisement, all
elections will be through
secret ballot.
15. At the earliest occasion the people must choose
delegates
according the present division of the country in counties, cities and
boroughs
who will form a convention or legislative body to draft a constitution
according to the needs of the country, in accordance with the
provisions of this
Declaration, subject to modification according to the will of the
people.
16. Every individual of male gender aged 21 and over
will have the
right to vote as stipulated in the present Declaration for the election
of the
aforementioned delegates.
17. All the lands of the Crown and those called
Reserves of the
Clergy as well as those formally belonging to a certain company of
landowners in England called "The Company of the Lands of British North
America" are rightfully the property of the state of Lower Canada,
except for
the parts that may be the property of people who own them in good
faith, to
whom claims will be granted and guaranteed in accordance with an act to
be
passed which will legalize such possession and give a title to such
plots in the
townships where such titles do not exist, when such plots are under
cultivation
or improved.
18. The French and English languages will be used in
all public
affairs.
And for the realization of this Declaration and in
support of the
patriotic cause which we have now undertaken with full confidence in
the
protection of the All-Mighty and in the justice of our action -- we
solemnly
pledge to each other through the present our lives and fortunes and our
most
sacred honour.
By order of the Provisional Government.
Robert Nelson, President.
( This history of Quebec is not even taught in
Quebec and
Canadian schools.
At that time, 855 people were imprisoned following the suspension of
the habeas corpus, which in 1970 numbers would be the
equivalent
of 10,000 people! In Montreal alone in 1838, 816 people were arrested
on a
population of 30,000, which would translate to 40,000 people as a
percentage
of the population of Montreal today. Of that number, 108 were
court-martialled following which 12 were executed and 58 were exiled.
This
is not including the hundreds who were forced to flee to the U.S. to
escape
arrest, including 10 accused of "murder" and who faced the death
penalty if
they ever returned.
For his part, the leader of the Marxist-Leninist Party
Comrade Hardial Bains also proposed how
the preamble of
the Constitution of Quebec might read:
We, the people of Quebec, exercising our inviolable
and inalienable
right as a sovereign people with collective rights irrespective of the
languages
we speak, the religions we practice, the ideologies and political
opinions we
hold on basic values and social objectives, or other attributes such as
skin
colour, national background, gender, age, lifestyle, ability, wealth or
social
position, hereby declare the formation of the Republic of Quebec, a
modern
nation-state and polity in which all citizens enjoy equal rights and
duties and
all minority rights based on concrete objective reality are recognized
as
inviolable and inalienable.
In this modern nation-state and polity, our
collective rights reign
supreme, and the rights of individuals are protected by passing
legislation
which harmonizes them with the general well-being of society.
In this modern nation-state and polity, the people
are sovereign and
set the fundamental law and govern themselves as we have done by means
of
the referendum through which we expressed our collective will to
establish our
modern nation-state and polity.
Our action from now as a sovereign people is to
collectively
establish state structures according to this law of the land, the
Constitution of
the Republic of Quebec, and begin to govern ourselves on the basis of
this
Constitution.
As a sovereign people prepared to enter the third
millennium with
our own modern nation-state and polity based on the exercise of our
collective
rights, we greet the peoples of all lands on this solemn occasion and
wish them
success in all their endeavours. We convey to them that they will
always find
in the Republic of Quebec fraternal feelings of friendship and
solidarity, and
we pledge that no evil will come to them from Quebec.
We particularly wish the people of Canada, with whom
we have
shared weal and woe for more than a century, every success in their own
project of nation-building, and we extend our hand of cooperation in
every
way.
The Republic of Quebec, expressing the collective
will of the people
of Quebec, dedicates all its structures to the restoration of the
hereditary rights
of the First Nations which live within the boundaries of Quebec
territory.
May the Republic of Quebec always remain in the
front ranks of the
world community to safeguard peace, security and prosperity on the
basis of
the principle that the good fortune of all is the condition for our
good
fortune.
What all this shows is that the experience of
nation-building must be
discussed in its entirety. How can it be used as a political football
according
to party interests?
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