On 18th September, the Prime Minister of Canada accused India of having involvement in the murder of Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar on Canadian soil. Moving a step further, Canada expelled a top Indian diplomat. In the aftermath, India denied the allegations and expelled a Canadian diplomat who had to leave India in 5 days. Interestingly, Canada has been a long-time supporter of Khalistani separatists. So much so, Justin Trudeau’s father, Pierre Trudeau, had refused India’s request for the extradition of Khalistani terrorist Talwinder Singh Parmar, chief of Babbar Khalsa. Parmar continued to live in Canada and planned the Kanishka bombing, in which 329 people were killed, including 268 Canadians.

While Canada has supported the separatism movement against India, its backyard is not as silent as it may look. For decades, the residents of Quebec have been asking for a separate nation. Most of Quebec is predominately French, and there have been two referendums already, the second of which Canada won only by a margin of around 54,000 votes.

The history of Canadian colonisation

The history of colonisation in Canada began back in the 1530s. Canada was, in fact, the first French colony. It was claimed for France by Jacques Cartier in 1534. The permanent French settlement began in Canada in 1608. The main aim of the settlement was the fur trade. For almost 150 years, Canada remained a French colony.

In the 1760s, the British attacked Canada and defeated France in a French and Indian War. As a result, Canada was divided into Upper Canada (British) and Lower Canada (French). The Lower Canada is now called Quebec. In 1867, Canada was united with the British North America Act.

The nationalism that led to seperatism

The demand for a separate nation comes under French Canadian nationalism. According to Britannica, the sense of nationalism among the French Canadians resulted from economic and social changes in Quebec since 1890. Notably, before the 1890s, the people of Quebec mostly thrived on agriculture and seasonal work in the timber trade.

However, with the growth of the hydroelectric power and wood pulp industry, Quebec quickly peaked in the industrial revolution. Manufacturing plants were established in Quebec and Ontario, leading to the migration of French Canadian workers into the cities.

The sense of discrimination developed among the French Canadians from this point in time as very few facilities were available for them. The quick rise in the French Canadian population and lack of workable land pushed them to low-paying jobs in the urban industries. Later, it pushed them further to establish urban slums, especially in Montreal.

In the next three decades, Quebec flourished in terms of industry and became Canada’s most urbanised and industrialised province. The rapid industrialisation led to a head-on clash between traditional Roman Catholic agriculture favouring the population and industrialisation favouring the population. Between 1936 and 1959, Quebec saw a turmoil of political change. Especially when Premier Maurice Duplessis came to power, he preferred to support the Roman Catholic Church as Quebec’s chief agency of social welfare and education and foreign investment, which opposed most of the new social and educational initiatives launched by other regional governments.

Following the World War II, Montreal and other urban centres saw a rapid growth. The French-speaking urban middle class was now shifting to businesses and white-collar professions. The general public was getting more educated, with more students completing high school and entering Canadian colleges and universities.

During that period, Pierre Trudeau, who later became Prime Minister of Canada, became one of the idealist leaders who opposed the ideas of Duplessis. In 1959, Duplessis died, which led to major political changes in the region.

In June 1960, the Quebec Liberal Party came to power under Jean Lesage. Some of the major steps taken at that time included the removal of the Roman Catholic Church from most secular activities and the provincial government’s involvement in economic development. The changes brought by the regime, including the nationalisation of the power sector, the provincial pension plan and the creating of investment capital, are known as the Quiet Revolution.

The demand for seperate Quebec nation

In 1966, the Union Nationale defeated the Liberals and came to power. Though they remained fundamentally federalist, the stress had now shifted to obtaining greater provincial power. The opinions among the leaders ranged from demanding special status for Quebec to supporting a separate and independent country altogether.

The demand led to the establishment of Parti Quebecois, which advocated secession from the confederation. In the 1970 elections, the party under the leadership of Rene Levesque won 24 per cent of the popular votes against the Liberals. Though Liberals remained in power with 72 of 95 assembly seats, the political turmoil continued in the region.

Separatism comes with an armed tussle, and Canada also faced it in the early 1960s. According to Britannica, a section of separatists was inspired by refugees from Algeria and the armed revolution of Cuba at that time and practised terrorism. The bombings began in 1963 and continued for years. While most French and English Canadians believed it was an “un-Canadian” thing to do, armed separatism continued to rise.

The movement’s peak came in 1970 when a terrorist group named Quebec Liberation Front or Front de Libération du Québec kidnapped the British trade commissioner, James Cross, and Quebec’s labour minister, Pierre Laporte. They later murdered Laporte. Irked by the incident, the Quebec government sought federal intervention, leading to the enactment of the War Measures Act. All usual civil rights were suspended. Around 500 people were arrested, and federal troops were deployed in Quebec. The people of Canada mostly supported the act.

The French language bills

In 1974 and 1976, Quebec’s provincial legislature passed Bill 22 and Bill 101. These bills declared French as the province’s official language. A mandate was issued to establish French-language schools for immigrants and required the use of the French language in the workplace. Though the francophone residents of Quebec were happy with the new laws, the English-speaking and other Quebeckers and the rest of the Canadians were not that pleased.

The first referendum

In 1982, the Canadian federal government introduced a new Constitution through the Constitution Act. This act included a Charter of Rights and Freedoms to address human rights concerns, particularly among French Canadians. However, Quebec did not accept this Constitution Act. In 1984, the Liberal Party lost control of Parliament to the Conservative Party, and Prime Minister Brian Mulroney made it a priority to address constitutional tensions with Quebec.

In 1987, Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and Quebec Premier Robert Bourassa met at Meech Lake in Ontario, which led to the Meech Lake Accord. This Accord proposed changes to the Canadian Constitution that recognised Quebec as a “distinct society” within Canada, emphasised the coexistence of French and English speakers as essential to Canadian society, and granted Quebec a say in choosing Supreme Court justices, shaping immigration policy, and vetoing constitutional amendments. While Bourassa was content with this Accord, it stirred controversy among non-Francophone Canadians who believed that it gave Quebecois a privileged position over other groups like Indigenous peoples and women.

Despite receiving approval from Ottawa and eight provincial governments, the Meech Lake Accord failed in 1990 due to opposition from Manitoba and Newfoundland.

The referendums for a separate state

In 1992, the Quebec government proposed a referendum to decide whether Quebec should become an independent country or remain a part of Canada. The national government suggested a meeting in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, to prevent Quebec from leaving to discuss the country’s rules. They aimed to satisfy everyone, including Quebec, Indigenous groups, groups with special rights, and provinces with different economic needs. However, it proved to be a difficult task to make everyone happy. In the end, only four provinces agreed to the Charlottetown plan, while six, including Quebec, rejected it.

In 1995, Quebec held a second referendum to decide whether it should separate from Canada. The results were incredibly close, with 49.4% of the population voting in favour of Quebec’s secession, while 50.6% voted against it. Before the referendum, people across Canada had engaged in discussions about what it truly means to be Canadian. The outcome of the vote carried significant emotional and political weight.

In 1998, Lucien Bouchard, a popular politician from the Bloc Québécois party, suggested that Quebec negotiate a better deal with the national government. The federal government then asked the Supreme Court, the highest court in Canada, if Quebec had the right to leave. In 2000, the court ruled that Quebec cannot leave unilaterally, but the national government must take the matter seriously if most people in Quebec express a desire to leave. Otherwise, it could be seen as an unfair government.