25th Anniversary of 1995 Quebec Referendum

The People's Struggle to Vest Sovereignty in Themselves Remains a Problem to Be Resolved

- Claude Brunelle and Christine Dandenault -

October 25,  1995. Montreal rally for the "Yes" side in the Quebec referendum.

October 30, 2020 marks the 25th anniversary of the Quebec referendum. In 1995, the Quebec people voted on sovereignty, under the difficult conditions of the time, where the forces of the Canadian establishment made every effort to crush their desire to assert their right as a sovereign nation. Twenty-five years later, the problem remains. The British North America Act, the so-called Constitution, is 150 years old and based on the royal prerogative, the old colonial conceptions that deny the rights of the Quebec nation, the Indigenous nations and the Canadian people.

Today, a profound movement exists among young people for a modern and sovereign Quebec that defends the rights of all, protects the natural and social environment, upholds nation-to-nation relations based on equality with Indigenous peoples, the people of Canada and the peoples of the world, and is a zone for peace. It represents the desire of all those who live in Quebec and constitute one nation and work and create wealth together. This objective independent movement inspires hope, because it is a nation-building project that reflects the aspirations of all for a modern society that recognizes that all are human beings, that all enjoy the same rights and duties and participate together as an organized force in the promotion of the well-being of all.

Many illusions are promoted about the system of representative democracy when the people can see that this system does not represent them. Under the current arrangements the people have no control over decision-making. The democratic institutions in Quebec, as in all of Canada, were established in the 19th century and kept the "royal prerogative" and vested privileges in the hands of a tiny minority. Whether this small minority is led by a monarch, president or prime minister, the organs of power are either unelected or elected through a process that prevents the people from participating according to the principle "of the people, by the people and for the people."

This is all part of the lessons learned from the 1995 referendum.

The 1995 referendum question, formulated by the party holding the majority in the National Assembly, the Parti Québécois, was: "Do you agree that Quebec should become sovereign, after having made a formal offer to Canada for a new economic and political partnership, within the scope of the bill respecting the future of Quebec and of the agreement signed on June 12, 1995?" Just over five million people voted in the referendum, which was 93.52 per cent of eligible voters, a record turnout. The proposal was rejected by 50.58 per cent of the voters, with 49.42 per cent in favour. The difference between the "yes" and the "no" was 54,288 votes.

The stated objective of the bill referred to in the question, Bill 1, An Act respecting the future of Quebec, was to give the National Assembly the power to declare the sovereignty of Quebec and to claim "the exclusive power to pass all its laws, levy all its taxes and conclude all its treaties." It provided for a new constitution to be drafted for Quebec, maintaining the current borders, the creation of Quebec citizenship, the use of the Canadian dollar, and maintaining the laws and social programs in force. It also provided for the government of Quebec to propose a partnership treaty with the rest of Canada based on the tripartite agreement signed on June 12, 1995 by the leader of the Parti Québécois, Jacques Parizeau; the leader of the Bloc Québécois, Lucien Bouchard; and the leader of Action Démocratique, Mario Dumont. This agreement contained certain proposals that a sovereign Quebec would make to Canada to define relations between the two countries.

Bill 1 passed first reading in the National Assembly and, in preparation for the referendum, the government sent a copy to every household in Quebec, along with a copy of the tripartite agreement.

The bill quickly found great support in Quebec society because the timing was right and the conditions favourable for the declaration of Quebec sovereignty. The progressive forces in Quebec and Canada also recognized that there was an urgent need to establish a new economic and political partnership between Quebec and Canada. The 1995 referendum was essential to break the deadlock created by Liberal opposition to Quebec sovereignty and to democratic renewal generally. Discontent with the constitutional arrangements had grown across Canada, not just in Quebec. The 1990 Citizens' Forum on Canada's Future, in which people participated in large numbers, showed that Canadians did not trust politicians to write the constitution and called for far-reaching changes to the political process. The need for a modern constitution and new arrangements to replace the British North America Act of 1867, which was based on the negation of the nation of Quebec and the Indigenous nations, and the need to empower the people to decide all the issues that concern them were on the agenda then and still are today.

The 1995 referendum was a bold gesture that followed nearly 25 years of talks on Quebec's place in Confederation, so-called constitutional reforms and initiatives from Quebec to assert Quebec's sovereignty, the failure of the Quebec referendum of 1980 and the Meech Lake Accord of 1990, and the rejection by Canadians of the Charlottetown Accord in the 1992 referendum.

Not to be forgotten is the period of the national liberation movement of the 1960s. The attempt by the government of Pierre Elliott Trudeau to crush the struggle of the Quebec people's nation-building project by imposing the War Measures Act on the territory of Quebec on October 16, 1970 failed. Student youth and other collectives resisted the military occupation and were supported across the country.

During the period leading up to the 1995 referendum, federal Liberal leader Jean Chrétien and leader of the Liberal Party of Quebec Daniel Johnson, created every possible obstacle to calmly discussing the needs of the Quebec nation and the need for a modern constitution for Canada. They resorted to lies, distortion, threats and blackmail to subvert any reasonable effort to have discussion. The No camp repeatedly violated the Quebec Referendum Act, especially with regard to spending limits.

The Anglo-Canadian colonial state backed by the entire Canadian establishment, including big public and private companies like Via Rail, Air Canada and Radio-Canada carried out a vile campaign of fear and engaged in all kinds of illegal tactics to subvert the referendum law to ensure the victory of the No vote. Money was given to individuals and businesses to buy their support. There were all kinds of "demonstrations of unity," including the final one -- the Unity Rally on October 27 that was financed by corporate sponsors, most from outside Quebec. Participants in the rally from outside of Quebec received heavily discounted fares from Via Rail, Air Canada and others and telephone companies from BC to New Brunswick offered free five-minute calls to Quebeckers to encourage them to vote No -- in violation of the Quebec legislation. There was also a concerted effort to corrupt and buy the support of leaders in national minority communities with promises of jobs, grants and other rewards. The Liberals are masters of this sort of thing, not just in Montreal but across the country.

Much effort was made after the 1995 referendum to broaden the national independence movement and "reach out" to national minorities. However, without resolutely and emphatically embracing the modern definition of the nation, what prevails is the "integration" model, the European or French model which is the other side of racist Canadian multiculturalism. The Parti Québécois has not been able to rise above the "French" or "Francophone" nation. Even after coming to power with the defeat of Jean Charest's Liberals in the 2012 election, due in part to the repressive legislation against Quebec students in the spring of 2012, Pauline Marois' Parti Québécois maintained this outdated and divisive vision of the nation on a linguistic basis and later imposed its charter of values which, among other things, banned the wearing of religious symbols and which led to its defeat.

The inability of the independence movement to throw off these shackles which divide the polity on the basis of support for "left" and "right" social policies, into a "yes" and "no" camp, etc., also explains the failure to mobilize the vast majority of Quebeckers around a common project for a sovereign and modern state and a Quebec that defends the rights of all.

In the aftermath of the defeat of the 1995 referendum, it was obvious that everything should be done to break free of the outdated definition of the nation. Many have recognized this reality. A modern state is not built on the basis of blood lines. A modern state is built on the basis of high ideals, one of which in the modern era is the creation of a political system that recognizes and guarantees the rights of all on the basis that all have rights by virtue of being human beings.

Today the struggle to be a sovereign people can be seen in the battles being fought by workers, youth, women -- the collectives that make up Quebec society -- to be at the centre of the solutions to all the problems facing society in order for there to be progress. This is the problem that workers are facing and are solving in the heart of the pandemic, right now, to assert their safety, that of their peers and of the society. The old so-called democratic institutions, as well as the cartel party system, are bankrupt and blocking them from becoming the decision-makers in their workplaces, hospitals, schools and communities. It is the same block that they face in asserting the sovereignty of the people, their right to decide everything that concerns them.

This week, Dominique Anglade, leader of the Liberal Party of Quebec, marked the 25th anniversary of the 1995 referendum by saying that "there is still something unfinished in the place that Quebec must occupy within Canada." The Liberal leader says that the Quebec government must claim, among other things, its cultural sovereignty. She said that "Quebec is master of its future, in a Canada where everyone must be able to find their rightful place" and that "Quebec must not give up its legitimate demands, or let federal power expand without limits."

So for the Liberals nothing has changed. The current Liberal position shows that they have not abandoned their backward conception of a great British Empire which denies the right to sovereignty and the right of the people to decide. It clings onto the old clichés of power and rivalry between the provinces and Canada and denies the objective need to address the wrongs of the past and the need for the affirmation of Quebeckers' right to decide and to speak in their own name.

(Photos: TML, Verdun Burough Archives Fund)

This article was published in

Volume 50 Number 41 - October 31, 2020

Article Link:
25th Anniversary of 1995 Quebec Referendum: The People's Struggle to Vest Sovereignty in Themselves Remains a Problem to Be Resolved - Claude Brunelle and Christine Dandenault

    

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