Partition of Quebec
Encyclopedia
Partition in Quebec politics
refers to the secession
of regions of the province of Quebec
, rather than to partitions in a strict political sense
. It is usually discussed as a possibility in the event of Quebec secession from Canada
. It was not a key issue in either the 1980 Referendum on Quebec Sovereignty or the 1995 Referendum on Quebec Sovereignty, but dominated the politics of national unity for about two years in the aftermath of the second referendum. Since then, the issue has occasionally resurfaced (for example in the 2007 provincial election
).
1. New borders based on a return to historical boundaries that predate the Confederation of 1867.
2. New borders that would create a ‘land bridge’ between New Brunswick
and Ontario
3. New borders based on the preferences of local populations.
In December 1976, an organization called the "Preparatory Committee for an Eleventh Province" was formed in Montreal
. This group contained some individuals who believed, along with Shaw, that the threat of a partition in which some parts of Quebec would remain within Canada would weaken support for separation.
Other members of the Preparatory Committee sought to create a new province out of the non-Francophone parts of Quebec even if Quebec were to remain in Canada, in order to create a new, bilingual province. This faction within the early partition movement bears some resemblance to the movements that have arisen from time to time in parts of some Canadian provinces to break away and form new provinces
. For example, also in the 1970s, there was a movement, led by the Parti Acadien
, to create a new Acadian province out northern New Brunswick
.
Shortly before the 1980 referendum on Quebec secession, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau
remarked, "Si le Canada est divisible, le Québec doit être aussi divisible." (This translates as, "If Canada is divisible, Quebec must also be divisible.") Apparently taking their inspiration from this statement, Shaw and co-author Lionel Albert had published a book on the subject by the end of the year. Partition: The Price of Quebec’s Independence outlined a plan for the excision of three slices of territory from a newly independent Quebec republic:
Shaw and Albert calculated that the resulting independent Quebec republic would contain somewhat less than one-quarter of the province’s total landmass, have a population of around 2.9 million, and would be about 97% French-speaking. The parts remaining in Canada would contain over three million residents, of whom about two-thirds would be French-speaking. But they also seem to have believed that their scenario would never play out. As they put it, “Such a country will not be proclaimed—ever. The French-Canadian people would not have it. They would rather have a large province than a small country. That is why separation will not happen.”
The Grand Council of the Crees
and the Inuit
of Nunavik
in Northern Quebec
have both expressed that they will keep their lands in Canada should Quebec secede, invoking international laws that guarantee their right to self-determination. In 1995, a Cree referendum voted 95% in favour of staying in Canada should Quebec secede.
Following the narrow loss by the separatist side in the October 1995 referendum on secession, there was a widespread belief that another referendum would be held in the near future. For this reason, potential players began to take actions that would strengthen their positions in the coming unity crisis. Forty-three municipal councils in Quebec, including many on the western part of the Island of Montreal, passed resolutions expressing their will to stay in Canada.
In 1997, Denzil Spence, the mayor of Allumette Island, a small west Quebec municipality on the Ontario border, approached the county councils in several nearby Ontario counties with the following pro-partition resolution which had previously been endorsed by Quebec's Equality Party
:
Between March and August 1997, the resolution was endorsed by county councils in Renfrew County
, Frontenac County
, Lanark County
, and Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry United Counties
, but it was rejected by the council of Prescott-Russell County
.
A similar resolution, circulated by a group called the Quebec Committee for Canada, was endorsed by New Brunswick premier Frank McKenna
in early summer 1997, and shortly afterwards by New Brunswick's Union of Municipalities, representing about 40 predominantly anglophone municipal councils. However the parallel francophone organization, the Association of New Brunswick Municipalities, rejected the partition resolution. Quebec Premier Lucien Bouchard
responded to Premier McKenna's letter of endorsement with a letter of his own, defending Quebec's right to secede with its territory intact. This in turn provoked an open letter from federal Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Stéphane Dion
, arguing that partition was a legitimate option. Finally, on August 14, Quebec's deputy premier, Bernard Landry
, responded with an open letter in Le Droit
, accusing partitionists of being anti-democratic.
Shortly after these events, the sovereignist provincial government of Premier Bouchard enacted a law forcing many of Quebec's municipalities to merge — and in particular, forcing all of the small non-francophone municipalities on the Island of Montreal to become part of a single francophone-majority municipality covering the entire island. Montreal Gazette columnist Henry Aubin observed shortly afterwards that "many sovereignists hoped that the merger would boost French and stymie partition.", ignoring the fact that municipalities have no constitutional powers and belong to the province.
and federalist Quebec nationalists
generally oppose partition. As a rule, opposition to partition is expressed in terms of a belief in the inviolable "territorial integrity
" ("intégrité térritoriale") of Quebec. A number of arguments have been advanced in defence of this position.
1. International law guarantees the territorial integrity of Quebec. The most precise expression of the argument that international law would guarantee a sovereign Quebec’s right to its current boundaries was given, in 1992, from the Bélanger-Campeau Commission, by a panel of international law experts (Thomas Franck
, Rosalyn Higgins
, Alain Pellet
, Malcolm Shaw
, Christian Tomuschat
) commissioned by the government of Quebec in the aftermath of the failed Meech Lake Accord. They responded to the following two questions on the territorial integrity and the potential partition of an independent Quebec, which were posed by a special commission of the Quebec National Assembly
:
The panelists answered as follows:
2. Quebec is a nation, and therefore it has the collective right to be an independent nation-state, and also a collective right not to be partitioned or divided. There are corollaries to this argument. First, Canada including French-speaking and English-speaking Canadians would be considered not to be a nation, and hence its territorial integrity does not warrant the protection given under international law to the existing borders of nation-states. Second, the fact that English-speaking Canadians living in Quebec are linked by language to another nation (the rest of Canada) does not mean that they have the right to remain within Canada in their homes if the province secedes. This argument was presented most succinctly by Premier Lucien Bouchard
when he stated, on January 27, 1996, that "Canada is not a real country."
Gerald Larose, the president of the Confederation of National Trade Unions, used this argument to explain why he referred to partition proposals as "racist":
A less intolerant version of this belief in the need for French-Canadian linguistic solidarity may be behind the opposition of many francophones outside Quebec to the partition movement. In the two-year period following the 1995 referendum, when many municipal councils in Ontario and New Brunswick were passing resolutions endorsing the right of individual municipalities within Quebec to leave the province and rejoin Canada, the "partition resolution" was rejected by almost all French-majority municipalities in the two provinces. In the mostly-French Ottawa suburb of Vanier, the council approved the resolution, and later rescinded its approval. Mayor Guy Cousineau explained this reversal to a newspaper reporter by stating "I had letters and calls from many francophones in Nepean, Gloucester, and on the Quebec side." He went on to explain, "We must show solidarity for 'la francophonie' from one ocean to the other. Not just here in Ontario, not just in Quebec, but everywhere in Canada…. Now, it's very clear and certain that we're not in favour of Quebec separation, but there are better ways to encourage Quebecers to remain in Canada."
3. Partition is based on the undemocratic assumption that Quebec is not divisible as long as it is voting "No" to secession, but that it is divisible as soon as it votes "Yes." In 1997, future Parti Québécois leader Bernard Landry
expressed this point of view when he wrote,
4. Partition is an impractical solution, or is being proposed insincerely even by its advocates. This argument has been advanced by Raymond Villeneuve
, a former member of the FLQ and leader of the Mouvement de libération nationale du Québec
(MLNQ), who says,
To some degree, there is merit in Villeneuve's characterization of partition as being primarily an argument designed to encourage Quebecers to vote against separation in any future referendum on separation. Trudeau's 1980 observation that if Canada is divisible, Quebec is also divisible, was made on the eve of a referendum in which he was attempting to encourage voters to cast their ballots against secession. The first book on the subject, and the one which gave its name to the movement, was 1980's Partition, the Price of Quebec's Independence, by Lionel Albert
and William Shaw. The title of this book makes clear its intention to use the threat of territorial losses to dissuade Quebecers from voting in favour of secession. Stephen Scott was even more direct about his intention to use the threat of partition as a means of preventing separation altogether:
By the time of the second referendum on secession, in 1995, not all partition arguments were designed with the intention of causing Quebecers to vote against independence. The referendums by Quebec's Cree and Inuit populations in the days prior to the province's referendum seem to have been designed not to serve as a threat, but rather to provide a clear basis on which to actually carry out the separation of these territories from Quebec, in the event of a provincewide majority in favour of secession.
5. Partition is illegal due to municipalities being entities created by the Quebec National Assembly and therefore, the municipalities cannot hold referendum on separations, because they don't have any constitutional powers.
Support for partition was relatively low when people were asked, simply, if they favoured “partition” as a concept, but rose rapidly when the pollsters asked whether people or regions should be allowed to choose whether to remain in Canada. For example, one poll published in late September 1997 reported that when Quebecers were asked, “Are you for or against partition?” only 34.4% supported the idea. In another poll conducted at almost the same time, 60% of Quebecers answered “yes” when asked, “Do you believe that any regions of Quebec which want to remain part of Canada have the right to do so?”
Within Quebec, opinion was about evenly divided as to whether parts of the province that wish to remain within Canada should be permitted to do so. However, outside Quebec, a decisive majority believed that parts of Quebec which wish to remain Canadian should be permitted to do so. In a poll conducted five months after the referendum, 48% of Quebecers responded “yes”, and 45% “no” to the question, “If Quebec becomes sovereign, do you think regions of Quebec should have the right to remain part of Canada?” In the rest of Canada, 75% answered “yes” and only 23% answered “no.” In a 1997 poll, 56% of Quebecers and 80% of non-Quebecers felt that “regions” of Quebec should “have the right to stay in Canada” if Quebec were to secede.
Both inside and outside Quebec, there tended to be opposition to any option that hinted of the use of force to settle territorial issues. The strongest opposition to partition came in the answers to a 1996 poll in which respondents were asked whether it would be acceptable “for groups within Quebec to partition the territory and separate from Quebec.” Only 66% of non-Quebecers said this option was acceptable (about 10 - 15% below support levels in other polls), and it was supported by only 25% of Quebecers. Significantly, survey respondents had first been asked whether they agreed with the statement, “If Quebec votes to leave Canada, the federal government should use force to make it stay,” and it seems likely that many survey respondents associated partition with the use of force.
Among both Quebecers and non-Quebecers, support was higher for giving the right to self-determination to Quebec’s aboriginals, than it was for giving the same right to non-aboriginals who might want to remain within Canada. For example, in a 1997 poll, 75% of Quebecers and 92% of non-Quebecers agreed that the Cree and Inuit regions of northern Quebec “have the right to stay in Canada.” A 1999 poll showed that 72% of Quebecers found it reasonable that “northern regions with an aboriginal majority could stay in Canada”, while only 49% were willing to accord the same right to regions where a majority had voted No to separation.
No major political party in Quebec supports partition, including federalist parties.
stated that while he personally was opposed to partition, it would emerge as an issue if Quebec voted to secede from Canada. Political rivals Mario Dumont
(Action démocratique du Québec
) and Andre Boisclair
(Parti Québécois
) criticized this.
Politics of Quebec
The politics of Quebec are centred on a provincial government resembling that of the other Canadian provinces, namely a constitutional monarchy and parliamentary democracy. The capital of the province is Quebec City, where the Lieutenant Governor, Premier, the legislature, and cabinet reside.The...
refers to the secession
Secession
Secession is the act of withdrawing from an organization, union, or especially a political entity. Threats of secession also can be a strategy for achieving more limited goals.-Secession theory:...
of regions of the province of Quebec
Quebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
, rather than to partitions in a strict political sense
Partition (politics)
In politics, a partition is a change of political borders cutting through at least one territory considered a homeland by some community. That change is done primarily by diplomatic means, and use of military force is negligible....
. It is usually discussed as a possibility in the event of Quebec secession from Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
. It was not a key issue in either the 1980 Referendum on Quebec Sovereignty or the 1995 Referendum on Quebec Sovereignty, but dominated the politics of national unity for about two years in the aftermath of the second referendum. Since then, the issue has occasionally resurfaced (for example in the 2007 provincial election
Quebec general election, 2007
The Quebec general election of 2007 was held in the Canadian province of Quebec on March 26, 2007 to elect members of the 38th National Assembly of Quebec. The Quebec Liberal Party led by Jean Charest managed to win a plurality of seats, but were reduced to a minority government, Quebec's first in...
).
Partition proposals
Broadly speaking, partition proposals have tended to fall into three categories:1. New borders based on a return to historical boundaries that predate the Confederation of 1867.
- The logic here is that the separation of Quebec would represent an end to a constitutional deal in which Quebec was granted stewardship over certain lands which would revert to their former sovereign owners if Quebec were to leave Canada.
- For example, in his 1991 book Who Gets Ungava?, David VartyDavid VartyDavid Lawrence Varty is a lawyer and author in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.Varty is author of the book, Who Gets Ungava?, analyzing the legal and constitutional issues , relating to the potential secession of the province of Quebec from Canada...
notes that the northern two-thirds of Quebec’s current territory had formerly been a part of the lands owned by the Hudson's Bay CompanyHudson's Bay CompanyThe Hudson's Bay Company , abbreviated HBC, or "The Bay" is the oldest commercial corporation in North America and one of the oldest in the world. A fur trading business for much of its existence, today Hudson's Bay Company owns and operates retail stores throughout Canada...
, and that it had been transferred to Quebec by means of two Acts of the Canadian Parliament, in 1898 and 1912 respectively. For this reason, if Quebec were to secede, the transfer would be legally void:- Quebec was a province of Canada at the time that the UngavaDistrict of UngavaThe District of Ungava was a regional administrative district of Canada's Northwest Territories from 1895 to 1912. It covered the northern portion of what is today Quebec, the interior of Labrador and the offshore islands to the west and north, which are now part of the Nunavut.The continental...
territory was transferred to Quebec’s jurisdiction... Had Quebec been moving to become an independent country, the transfer of jurisdiction would not have taken place. There was an implied condition that the Province of Quebec was going to remain part of Canada. Any attempt to move to independence would constitute a breach of that implied condition attached to the transfer.
- Quebec was a province of Canada at the time that the Ungava
2. New borders that would create a ‘land bridge’ between New Brunswick
New Brunswick
New Brunswick is one of Canada's three Maritime provinces and is the only province in the federation that is constitutionally bilingual . The provincial capital is Fredericton and Saint John is the most populous city. Greater Moncton is the largest Census Metropolitan Area...
and Ontario
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
- This could be set up to prevent Canada’s remaining nine provinces from being split into two non-contiguous chunks of territory separated by about 300 miles (482.8 km) of foreign (Quebec) soil. The term sometimes used for this eventuality is "Pakistanisation", in reference to the way in which East PakistanEast PakistanEast Pakistan was a provincial state of Pakistan established in 14 August 1947. The provincial state existed until its declaration of independence on 26 March 1971 as the independent nation of Bangladesh. Pakistan recognized the new nation on 16 December 1971. East Pakistan was created from Bengal...
(now BangladeshBangladeshBangladesh , officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh is a sovereign state located in South Asia. It is bordered by India on all sides except for a small border with Burma to the far southeast and by the Bay of Bengal to the south...
) and West PakistanWest PakistanWest Pakistan , common name West-Pakistan , in the period between its establishment on 22 November 1955 to disintegration on December 16, 1971. This period, during which, Pakistan was divided, ended when East-Pakistan was disintegrated and succeeded to become which is now what is known as Bangladesh...
were separated by hundreds of miles of foreign soil, following independence in 1947. The fear is that Canada would be unworkable if its four Atlantic provinces were to become an exclave.
3. New borders based on the preferences of local populations.
- The logic of this approach is that, if Quebecers as a whole have the right to determine by majority vote whether to separate from Canada, then by extension the residents of regions within Quebec ought to be accorded the same right to separate from Quebec and to remain within Canada. The areas of Quebec that have been mentioned as likely to choose to remain in Canada include English-speaking municipalities on the western part of the Island of MontrealMontrealMontreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
, Northern QuebecNord-du-QuébecNord-du-Québec is the largest of the seventeen administrative regions of Quebec, Canada. With , of which are lakes and rivers, it covers much of the Labrador Peninsula and about 55% of the total land surface area of Quebec....
, the Eastern TownshipsEastern TownshipsThe Eastern Townships is a tourist region and a former administrative region in south-eastern Quebec, lying between the former seigneuries south of the Saint Lawrence River and the United States border. Its northern boundary roughly followed Logan's Line, the geologic boundary between the flat,...
, and the PontiacPontiac Regional County Municipality, QuebecPontiac is a county regional municipality MRC Pontiac in the Outaouais region of Quebec, Canada. It should not be confused with the municipality of Pontiac, which is located inside the county regional municipality of Les Collines-de-l'Outaouais....
region in the Outaouais. In his 1992 book Canada Remapped: How the Partition of Quebec Will Reshape the Nation, Scott ReidScott Reid (politician)Scott Jeffrey Reid is a Canadian politician. He has served in the Canadian House of Commons since 2000, and currently represents the Ontario riding of Lanark—Frontenac—Lennox and Addington as a member of the Conservative Party....
argues in favour of partition as determined by local populations and largely dismisses the first two lines of thought on partition listed above.
History of the Partition debate
The partition movement dates from May 1976, when William Shaw, a candidate for the leadership of the Union Nationale, proposed the idea in a series of interviews with journalists. Writing several years later, Shaw recounted one of these interviews: "I said to the journalist at that time, ‘I want to introduce a new word into the lexicon of Canadian politics—PARTITION. The threat of partition will prevent separation.’"In December 1976, an organization called the "Preparatory Committee for an Eleventh Province" was formed in Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
. This group contained some individuals who believed, along with Shaw, that the threat of a partition in which some parts of Quebec would remain within Canada would weaken support for separation.
Other members of the Preparatory Committee sought to create a new province out of the non-Francophone parts of Quebec even if Quebec were to remain in Canada, in order to create a new, bilingual province. This faction within the early partition movement bears some resemblance to the movements that have arisen from time to time in parts of some Canadian provinces to break away and form new provinces
Proposals for new Canadian provinces and territories
Since Canadian Confederation in 1867, there have been several proposals for new Canadian provinces and territories. The Constitution of Canada requires an amendment for the creation of a new province but the creation of a new territory requires only an act of Parliament; therefore, it is easier...
. For example, also in the 1970s, there was a movement, led by the Parti Acadien
Parti acadien
The Parti Acadien was a political party in New Brunswick, Canada, in the 1970s and 1980s. The party was founded in 1972 by Acadians who were upset over poorer living conditions in predominantly francophone areas of the province versus those areas dominated by anglophones...
, to create a new Acadian province out northern New Brunswick
New Brunswick
New Brunswick is one of Canada's three Maritime provinces and is the only province in the federation that is constitutionally bilingual . The provincial capital is Fredericton and Saint John is the most populous city. Greater Moncton is the largest Census Metropolitan Area...
.
Shortly before the 1980 referendum on Quebec secession, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau
Pierre Trudeau
Joseph Philippe Pierre Yves Elliott Trudeau, , usually known as Pierre Trudeau or Pierre Elliott Trudeau, was the 15th Prime Minister of Canada from April 20, 1968 to June 4, 1979, and again from March 3, 1980 to June 30, 1984.Trudeau began his political career campaigning for socialist ideals,...
remarked, "Si le Canada est divisible, le Québec doit être aussi divisible." (This translates as, "If Canada is divisible, Quebec must also be divisible.") Apparently taking their inspiration from this statement, Shaw and co-author Lionel Albert had published a book on the subject by the end of the year. Partition: The Price of Quebec’s Independence outlined a plan for the excision of three slices of territory from a newly independent Quebec republic:
- The northern two-thirds of the province would be retained by Canada following independence, on the basis that the territory had been assigned (not ceded) to the Province of Quebec in two steps, in 1898 and 1912;
- All Quebec territory south of the St. Lawrence River would also be retained by Canada, on the basis of the 18th-century claim of the then-colonies of New YorkProvince of New YorkThe Province of New York was an English and later British crown territory that originally included all of the present U.S. states of New York, New Jersey, Delaware and Vermont, along with inland portions of Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Maine, as well as eastern Pennsylvania...
and Massachusetts to these lands, which had been abandoned by the British Crown only after Quebec had been captured by Britain in 1759; - The Outaouais region of west Quebec, the lower north shore of the Gulf of St. Lawrence and the western part of the island of MontrealWest IslandThe West Island is the unofficial name given to the western cities and boroughs of the Island of Montreal, in Quebec, Canada...
would remain in Canada on the basis that local populations are predominantly non-Francophone, and presumably therefore would be Canadian rather than Québécois in its loyalties.
Shaw and Albert calculated that the resulting independent Quebec republic would contain somewhat less than one-quarter of the province’s total landmass, have a population of around 2.9 million, and would be about 97% French-speaking. The parts remaining in Canada would contain over three million residents, of whom about two-thirds would be French-speaking. But they also seem to have believed that their scenario would never play out. As they put it, “Such a country will not be proclaimed—ever. The French-Canadian people would not have it. They would rather have a large province than a small country. That is why separation will not happen.”
The Grand Council of the Crees
Grand Council of the Crees
The Grand Council of the Crees , or the GCC, is the political body that represents the approximately 16,357 Crees or “Iyyu” / “Iynu” of the Eeyou Istchee territory in the James Bay and Nunavik regions of Northern Quebec, Canada...
and the Inuit
Inuit
The Inuit are a group of culturally similar indigenous peoples inhabiting the Arctic regions of Canada , Denmark , Russia and the United States . Inuit means “the people” in the Inuktitut language...
of Nunavik
Nunavik
Nunavik comprises the northern third of the province of Quebec, Canada. Covering a land area of 443,684.71 km² north of the 55th parallel, it is the homeland of the Inuit of Quebec...
in Northern Quebec
Nord-du-Québec
Nord-du-Québec is the largest of the seventeen administrative regions of Quebec, Canada. With , of which are lakes and rivers, it covers much of the Labrador Peninsula and about 55% of the total land surface area of Quebec....
have both expressed that they will keep their lands in Canada should Quebec secede, invoking international laws that guarantee their right to self-determination. In 1995, a Cree referendum voted 95% in favour of staying in Canada should Quebec secede.
Following the narrow loss by the separatist side in the October 1995 referendum on secession, there was a widespread belief that another referendum would be held in the near future. For this reason, potential players began to take actions that would strengthen their positions in the coming unity crisis. Forty-three municipal councils in Quebec, including many on the western part of the Island of Montreal, passed resolutions expressing their will to stay in Canada.
In 1997, Denzil Spence, the mayor of Allumette Island, a small west Quebec municipality on the Ontario border, approached the county councils in several nearby Ontario counties with the following pro-partition resolution which had previously been endorsed by Quebec's Equality Party
Equality Party (Quebec)
The Equality Party was a political party in Quebec, Canada, that promoted the use of English in Quebec on an equal basis with French. Four Equality Party members were elected to Quebec's National Assembly in 1989, as part of an anglophone reaction to changes made by the governing Liberals to...
:
- "Resolved: Regardless of the outcome of any referendum on the independence of Quebec conducted by the government of the province of Quebec, the Government of Canada guarantee forthwith the rights of loyal citizens of Canada, where they form the majority in any provincial riding in Quebec, to remain citizens of Canada, territorially part of the Canadian nation and people, one and indivisible."
Between March and August 1997, the resolution was endorsed by county councils in Renfrew County
Renfrew County, Ontario
Renfrew is a county in the Canadian province of Ontario. In 2006, the population was 97,545 and county covered , giving a population density of . There are 17 official municipalities.-Government:...
, Frontenac County
Frontenac County, Ontario
Frontenac County, as defined by Statistics Canada, is a census division of the Canadian province of Ontario. It is located in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario. The City of Kingston is included in the census division, but is politically separated from the County of Frontenac. It has a land...
, Lanark County
Lanark County, Ontario
Lanark County is a county located in the Canadian province of Ontario. As of 2006, the population is 63,785. Its county seat is Perth.The county took its name from the town of Lanark in Scotland.-Geography:...
, and Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry United Counties
Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry United Counties, Ontario
The United Counties of Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry is an upper tier county and census division in the Canadian province of Ontario. The county seat is Cornwall...
, but it was rejected by the council of Prescott-Russell County
Prescott and Russell United Counties, Ontario
The United Counties of Prescott and Russell are consolidated counties located in the Canadian province of Ontario. As of 2006, the population is 80,184. Its county seat is L'Orignal, Ontario. It was created as a result of a merger between Russell County and Prescott County in 1820...
.
A similar resolution, circulated by a group called the Quebec Committee for Canada, was endorsed by New Brunswick premier Frank McKenna
Frank McKenna
Francis Joseph "Frank" McKenna, PC, OC, ONB, QC is a Canadian businessman and former politician and diplomat. He is currently Deputy Chairman of the Toronto-Dominion Bank. He served as Canadian Ambassador to the United States from 2005 to 2006...
in early summer 1997, and shortly afterwards by New Brunswick's Union of Municipalities, representing about 40 predominantly anglophone municipal councils. However the parallel francophone organization, the Association of New Brunswick Municipalities, rejected the partition resolution. Quebec Premier Lucien Bouchard
Lucien Bouchard
Lucien Bouchard, is a Canadian lawyer, diplomat, politician and former Minister of the Environment of the Canadian Federal Government. He was the Leader of Opposition in the Canadian House of Commons from 1993 to 1996, and the 27th Premier of Quebec from January 29, 1996 to March 8, 2001...
responded to Premier McKenna's letter of endorsement with a letter of his own, defending Quebec's right to secede with its territory intact. This in turn provoked an open letter from federal Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Stéphane Dion
Stéphane Dion
Stéphane Maurice Dion, PC, MP is a Canadian politician who has been the Member of Parliament for the riding of Saint-Laurent–Cartierville in Montreal since 1996. He was the leader of the Liberal Party of Canada and the Leader of the Opposition in the Canadian House of Commons from 2006 to 2008...
, arguing that partition was a legitimate option. Finally, on August 14, Quebec's deputy premier, Bernard Landry
Bernard Landry
Bernard Landry, is a Quebec lawyer, teacher, politician, who served as the 28th Premier of Quebec , leader of the Opposition and leader of the Parti Québécois .-Personal:...
, responded with an open letter in Le Droit
Le Droit
Le Droit is a Canadian daily newspaper, published in Ottawa, Canada. Initially established and owned by the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, the paper was has been published by Gesca since 2000.-History:...
, accusing partitionists of being anti-democratic.
Shortly after these events, the sovereignist provincial government of Premier Bouchard enacted a law forcing many of Quebec's municipalities to merge — and in particular, forcing all of the small non-francophone municipalities on the Island of Montreal to become part of a single francophone-majority municipality covering the entire island. Montreal Gazette columnist Henry Aubin observed shortly afterwards that "many sovereignists hoped that the merger would boost French and stymie partition.", ignoring the fact that municipalities have no constitutional powers and belong to the province.
Arguments against partition
Quebec sovereigntistsQuebec sovereignty movement
The Quebec sovereignty movement refers to both the political movement and the ideology of values, concepts and ideas that promote the secession of the province of Quebec from the rest of Canada...
and federalist Quebec nationalists
Quebec nationalism
Quebec nationalism is a nationalist movement in the Canadian province of Quebec .-1534–1774:Canada was first a french colony. Jacques Cartier claimed it for France in 1534, and permanent French settlement began in 1608. It was part of New France, which constituted all French colonies in North America...
generally oppose partition. As a rule, opposition to partition is expressed in terms of a belief in the inviolable "territorial integrity
Territorial integrity
Territorial integrity is the principle under international law that nation-states should not attempt to promote secessionist movements or to promote border changes in other nation-states...
" ("intégrité térritoriale") of Quebec. A number of arguments have been advanced in defence of this position.
1. International law guarantees the territorial integrity of Quebec. The most precise expression of the argument that international law would guarantee a sovereign Quebec’s right to its current boundaries was given, in 1992, from the Bélanger-Campeau Commission, by a panel of international law experts (Thomas Franck
Thomas Franck (lawyer)
Thomas Franck was a lawyer, law professor, and expert on international law. Franck was the Murry and Ida Becker Professor of Law at New York University and advised many nations on legal matters, even helping some to write their constitutions.-Early life:Franck was born on July 14, 1931 in...
, Rosalyn Higgins
Rosalyn Higgins
Dame Rosalyn Higgins, DBE, QC is the former President of the International Court of Justice. Higgins was the first female judge to be appointed to the ICJ, and was elected President in 2006. Her term of office expired on 6 February 2009...
, Alain Pellet
Alain Pellet
Alain Pellet teaches international law and international economic law at the Université de Paris Ouest - Nanterre La Défense. He was director of the Centre de Droit International of the University between 1991 and 2001...
, Malcolm Shaw
Malcolm Shaw
Malcolm Nathan Shaw QC is a British legal academic, author, editor and lawyer.-Early life:Shaw studied at the University of Liverpool , the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Keele University .-Career:...
, Christian Tomuschat
Christian Tomuschat
Christian Tomuschat Christian Tomuschat Christian Tomuschat (born 23 July 1936, in Stettin (Szczecin) is a German jurist. He is emeritus professor of public international law and European law at the Humboldt University in Berlin and is a former member of the UN Human Rights Committee and the UN's...
) commissioned by the government of Quebec in the aftermath of the failed Meech Lake Accord. They responded to the following two questions on the territorial integrity and the potential partition of an independent Quebec, which were posed by a special commission of the Quebec National Assembly
Commission on the Political and Constitutional Future of Quebec
The Commission on the Political and Constitutional Future of Quebec, also known as the Bélanger-Campeau Commission, was established by the Lieutenant Governor of Quebec, at the initiative of Premier Robert Bourassa, after the demise of the Meech Lake Accord...
:
- Question No. 1: “Assuming that Quebec were to attain sovereignty, would the boundaries of a sovereign Quebec remain the same as its present boundaries, including the territories attributed to Quebec under the federal legislation of 1898 and 1912, or would they be those of the Province of Quebec at the time of the creation of the Canadian Federation in 1867?”
- Question No 2: “Assuming that Quebec were to attain sovereignty, would international law enforce the principle of territorial integrity (or uti possidetis) over any claims aiming to dismember the territory of Quebec, and more particularly:
- “(a) claims of the Natives of Quebec invoking the right to self-determination within the meaning of international law;
- “(b) claims of the anglophone minority, particularly in respect of those regions of Quebec in which this minority is concentrated;
- “(c) claims of the inhabitants of certain border regions of Quebec, regardless of ethnic origin?"
The panelists answered as follows:
- Answer No. 1: “If Quebec were to attain independence, the borders of a sovereign Quebec would be its present boundaries and would include the territories attributed to Quebec by the federal legislation of 1898 and 1912, unless otherwise agreed to by the province before independence, or as between the two States thereafter.”
- Answer No. 2: “If Quebec were to attain independence, the principle of legal continuity (absence of a vacuum juris) would allow the territorial integrity of Quebec, guaranteed both by Canadian constitutional law and public international law, to be asserted over any claims aimed at dismembering the territory of Quebec, whether they stem from:
- “- the Natives of Quebec, who enjoy all the rights belonging to minorities, in addition to those recognized in indigenous peoples by present-day international law, but without giving rise to the right to secede;
- “- the anglophone minority for whom the protection provided by international law has no territorial effect; or
- “- persons residing in certain border regions of Quebec, who, as such, enjoy no particular protection under international law."
- “These conclusions are reinforced by the applicability of the principle of the succession to the existing territorial limits at the time of independence.”
2. Quebec is a nation, and therefore it has the collective right to be an independent nation-state, and also a collective right not to be partitioned or divided. There are corollaries to this argument. First, Canada including French-speaking and English-speaking Canadians would be considered not to be a nation, and hence its territorial integrity does not warrant the protection given under international law to the existing borders of nation-states. Second, the fact that English-speaking Canadians living in Quebec are linked by language to another nation (the rest of Canada) does not mean that they have the right to remain within Canada in their homes if the province secedes. This argument was presented most succinctly by Premier Lucien Bouchard
Lucien Bouchard
Lucien Bouchard, is a Canadian lawyer, diplomat, politician and former Minister of the Environment of the Canadian Federal Government. He was the Leader of Opposition in the Canadian House of Commons from 1993 to 1996, and the 27th Premier of Quebec from January 29, 1996 to March 8, 2001...
when he stated, on January 27, 1996, that "Canada is not a real country."
Gerald Larose, the president of the Confederation of National Trade Unions, used this argument to explain why he referred to partition proposals as "racist":
- "Asked why he calls the partition movement racist, Larose said, 'cutting up a territory, wherever it's done in the world, is a racist project. They cut according to the backyard and the sidewalks of people, according to their race. This is a racist project.' Asked why this does not apply to the sovereignist project and Canada, he said, 'There is not one people in Canada. There are two peoples. Quebec is a people and Canada is another people and we have our territory. That is why Canada is divisible, Quebec un-divisible.'"
A less intolerant version of this belief in the need for French-Canadian linguistic solidarity may be behind the opposition of many francophones outside Quebec to the partition movement. In the two-year period following the 1995 referendum, when many municipal councils in Ontario and New Brunswick were passing resolutions endorsing the right of individual municipalities within Quebec to leave the province and rejoin Canada, the "partition resolution" was rejected by almost all French-majority municipalities in the two provinces. In the mostly-French Ottawa suburb of Vanier, the council approved the resolution, and later rescinded its approval. Mayor Guy Cousineau explained this reversal to a newspaper reporter by stating "I had letters and calls from many francophones in Nepean, Gloucester, and on the Quebec side." He went on to explain, "We must show solidarity for 'la francophonie' from one ocean to the other. Not just here in Ontario, not just in Quebec, but everywhere in Canada…. Now, it's very clear and certain that we're not in favour of Quebec separation, but there are better ways to encourage Quebecers to remain in Canada."
3. Partition is based on the undemocratic assumption that Quebec is not divisible as long as it is voting "No" to secession, but that it is divisible as soon as it votes "Yes." In 1997, future Parti Québécois leader Bernard Landry
Bernard Landry
Bernard Landry, is a Quebec lawyer, teacher, politician, who served as the 28th Premier of Quebec , leader of the Opposition and leader of the Parti Québécois .-Personal:...
expressed this point of view when he wrote,
- "The partitionists argue that 'No' voters should have more rights than 'Yes' voters. In 1980 and again in 1995, sovereignist voters accepted with good grace the majority decision. According to the partitionists, some 'No' voters could ignore democracy, refuse the verdict and change the rules of the game. This would be an intolerable injustice…. [Do] you think that the towns or the regions that voted 'Yes' in 1980 and in 1995 also have the right to break themselves away from Canada? Surely not."
4. Partition is an impractical solution, or is being proposed insincerely even by its advocates. This argument has been advanced by Raymond Villeneuve
Raymond Villeneuve
Raymond Villeneuve is a Canadian political activist.Villeneuve remained out of the spotlight as he was volunteering for the Parti Québécois from 1988 until the 1995 referendum...
, a former member of the FLQ and leader of the Mouvement de libération nationale du Québec
Mouvement de Libération Nationale du Québec
The Mouvement de libération nationale du Québec is a secessionist group in Quebec, Canada, founded by Front de libération du Québec founder and convicted manslaughterer, Raymond Villeneuve...
(MLNQ), who says,
- "They're always threatening us, always, always. Whether it's Brent TylerBrent TylerBrent Tyler is a lawyer in Quebec, Canada, known for his frequent court challenges to "Bill 101", Quebec's Charter of the French Language temporarily disbarred in November 2011 for not completing the continuing education requirements....
, Stephen ScottStephen ScottStephen Scott is an American composer best known for his development of the bowed piano , which involves a grand piano being played by an ensemble of ten musicians who utilize lengths of horsehair, nylon filament, and other utensils to bow the strings of the piano, creating an orchestra-like...
, William JohnsonWilliam Johnson (author)William Johnson, CM is a Canadian academic, journalist and author.Johnson's mother was francophone and his father anglophone and Johnson himself speaks both English and French...
, William Shaw or whoever. And they're very subtle about it. They say that if we want to divide Canada, then they'll divide Quebec. And they make it sound as though people will accept it. Their real objective is to scare people, but they say, 'We don't want violence. We just won't pay our taxes. We'll use civil disobedience.' "
To some degree, there is merit in Villeneuve's characterization of partition as being primarily an argument designed to encourage Quebecers to vote against separation in any future referendum on separation. Trudeau's 1980 observation that if Canada is divisible, Quebec is also divisible, was made on the eve of a referendum in which he was attempting to encourage voters to cast their ballots against secession. The first book on the subject, and the one which gave its name to the movement, was 1980's Partition, the Price of Quebec's Independence, by Lionel Albert
Lionel Albert
Lionel Albert is a businessperson, writer, and political activist in the Canadian province of Quebec. He is best known for his opposition to Quebec's language laws.-Background and private career:Albert is of Lithuanian Jewish background...
and William Shaw. The title of this book makes clear its intention to use the threat of territorial losses to dissuade Quebecers from voting in favour of secession. Stephen Scott was even more direct about his intention to use the threat of partition as a means of preventing separation altogether:
- "Partition is to Quebec nationalists like rats for Winston SmithWinston SmithWinston Smith is a fictional character and the protagonist of George Orwell's 1949 novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. The character was employed by Orwell as an everyman in the setting of the novel, a "central eye ... [the reader] can readily identify with"...
in George OrwellGeorge OrwellEric Arthur Blair , better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English author and journalist...
's novel 1984 — it is the ultimate fear. That is the only thing they have ever been afraid of: the disintegration of their territory."
By the time of the second referendum on secession, in 1995, not all partition arguments were designed with the intention of causing Quebecers to vote against independence. The referendums by Quebec's Cree and Inuit populations in the days prior to the province's referendum seem to have been designed not to serve as a threat, but rather to provide a clear basis on which to actually carry out the separation of these territories from Quebec, in the event of a provincewide majority in favour of secession.
5. Partition is illegal due to municipalities being entities created by the Quebec National Assembly and therefore, the municipalities cannot hold referendum on separations, because they don't have any constitutional powers.
Popular support / opposition
No polling was done on the subject of partition prior to the 1995 referendum on secession, so it is difficult to guess at levels of support. However, during the years following the referendum, a number of polls were conducted, asking Canadians their views on the subject. Different questions sometimes elicited different responses, but certain patterns could nevertheless be distinguished:Support for partition was relatively low when people were asked, simply, if they favoured “partition” as a concept, but rose rapidly when the pollsters asked whether people or regions should be allowed to choose whether to remain in Canada. For example, one poll published in late September 1997 reported that when Quebecers were asked, “Are you for or against partition?” only 34.4% supported the idea. In another poll conducted at almost the same time, 60% of Quebecers answered “yes” when asked, “Do you believe that any regions of Quebec which want to remain part of Canada have the right to do so?”
Within Quebec, opinion was about evenly divided as to whether parts of the province that wish to remain within Canada should be permitted to do so. However, outside Quebec, a decisive majority believed that parts of Quebec which wish to remain Canadian should be permitted to do so. In a poll conducted five months after the referendum, 48% of Quebecers responded “yes”, and 45% “no” to the question, “If Quebec becomes sovereign, do you think regions of Quebec should have the right to remain part of Canada?” In the rest of Canada, 75% answered “yes” and only 23% answered “no.” In a 1997 poll, 56% of Quebecers and 80% of non-Quebecers felt that “regions” of Quebec should “have the right to stay in Canada” if Quebec were to secede.
Both inside and outside Quebec, there tended to be opposition to any option that hinted of the use of force to settle territorial issues. The strongest opposition to partition came in the answers to a 1996 poll in which respondents were asked whether it would be acceptable “for groups within Quebec to partition the territory and separate from Quebec.” Only 66% of non-Quebecers said this option was acceptable (about 10 - 15% below support levels in other polls), and it was supported by only 25% of Quebecers. Significantly, survey respondents had first been asked whether they agreed with the statement, “If Quebec votes to leave Canada, the federal government should use force to make it stay,” and it seems likely that many survey respondents associated partition with the use of force.
Among both Quebecers and non-Quebecers, support was higher for giving the right to self-determination to Quebec’s aboriginals, than it was for giving the same right to non-aboriginals who might want to remain within Canada. For example, in a 1997 poll, 75% of Quebecers and 92% of non-Quebecers agreed that the Cree and Inuit regions of northern Quebec “have the right to stay in Canada.” A 1999 poll showed that 72% of Quebecers found it reasonable that “northern regions with an aboriginal majority could stay in Canada”, while only 49% were willing to accord the same right to regions where a majority had voted No to separation.
No major political party in Quebec supports partition, including federalist parties.
Provincial election of 2007
During the Quebec provincial election of 2007, Liberal Premier Jean CharestJean Charest
John James "Jean" Charest, PC, MNA is a Canadian politician who has been the 29th Premier of Quebec since 2003. He was leader of the federal Progressive Conservative Party of Canada from 1993 to 1998 and has been leader of the Quebec Liberal Party since 1998....
stated that while he personally was opposed to partition, it would emerge as an issue if Quebec voted to secede from Canada. Political rivals Mario Dumont
Mario Dumont
Mario Dumont is a television personality and former politician in the province of Quebec. He was a Member of the National Assembly of Quebec , and the leader of the Action démocratique du Québec , from 1994 to 2009...
(Action démocratique du Québec
Action démocratique du Québec
The Action démocratique du Québec, commonly referred to as the ADQ is a centre-right political party in Quebec, Canada. On the sovereignty question, it defines itself as autonomist, and has support from both soft nationalists and federalists....
) and Andre Boisclair
André Boisclair
André Boisclair is a politician in Quebec, Canada. He was the leader of the Parti Québécois, a social democratic and separatist party in Quebec....
(Parti Québécois
Parti Québécois
The Parti Québécois is a centre-left political party that advocates national sovereignty for the province of Quebec and secession from Canada. The Party traditionally has support from the labour movement. Unlike many other social-democratic parties, its ties with the labour movement are informal...
) criticized this.
External links
- "Souveraineté : Partition", dossier in Vigile.net (French and English)