P+The+Question+of+Quebec+-+Language+and+Sovereignty

The Question of Quebec - Language and Sovereignty. This section is mainly about Quebec and how it has been affected by various laws, leaders, new ideas to separate, and terrorists. We will mainly go in depth about the FLQ crisis, The Languages Act, The War Measures act (introduced to Canada by Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau), Quebec’s Opinion on both the FLQ crisis and the Languages Act, Bill 101 and Bill 22 and the leader of separatism, Rene Levesque.

FLQ crisis The FLQ crisis is about a group of terrorists called the FLQ. They were from Quebec and only though of separating Quebec from Canada. In one of their numerous scare tactics, they had bombed a bank. After the bombing of the bank, the year 1970 swung by and something worse was to happen. The FLQ had kidnapped the Minister of Finance. After he was kidnapped, Trudeau unleashed a new law called the War Measures Act. This law made it mandatory to have numerous cops running around aimlessly and granted them all rights to do whatever they wanted with someone who was supposedly to be involved with the FLQ in any which way. Despite this law, many bad happenings were still done and cause by the FLQ. The leader of the FLQ was tried for his numerous crimes once he was captured. Even though the government had the FLQ's leader, the remaining members did not ceasefire and there were many riots and bombings taking place all over Quebec. These bombings and riots came to a complete stop for good after the Canadian government flew a few of the members' to Cuba in Exile.

Although Pierre Trudeau thought that the War Measures Act was a good idea. He thought that if anyone arouse suspicion, they could be put behind bars, questioned and give a feeling of security. Many Quebeckers, however, worried for their safety on the streets and often thought that the police would brutally arrest them for any slight suspicion that they were doing anything wrong at all though many of them were. Quebeckers were also incredibly frightened of all the riots and bombings. Also, the whole FLQ crisis started the idea that Quebec could be completely separated from Canada. This way, they could sustain their rich culture and govern themselves. There were many that wished to separate from Canada, though, luckily, there were more people who wish Quebec to remain a part of Quebec.

The Official Languages Act The Official Languages Act is a law that was passed in 1969 that basically allowed French and English to be accepted as official languages. There were four main components to this act: -Both the English and the French languages will be allowed to be spoken in court and parliament -The law introduced Bilingual Districts, which were exactly what they sounded like. They were districts in which both English and French would be taught and would be allowed to speak in both French and English -Certain sections of federal civil service would be declared bilingual. This meant promotions would be based on how well you were in both languages. -All schools in Bilingual Districts would be forced to teach in English and in French immersions.

Quebec is Unsatisfied It was a good start for Canada to finally acknowledge both languages officially. Though there was a minor disagreement that the people of Quebec had for the Official Languages Act. They were not satisfied because it took way too long for the changes. Because of the quiet revolution, they had become very optimistic. Many young people were attending colleges and universities. Though the main problem was that even though the Quebec people who had attended these universities and colleges, and were highly qualified, could not obtain jobs simply because they could not speak English.

In 1968 there was a major development and Rene Levesque was in power of Quebec, he formed the Parti Quebecois (PQ), Its purpose was to resolve Quebec’s historic and economic issues by creating Quebec as an independent. By the end of the 1960’s two powerful leaders were in power Trudeau and Levesque. Their debate was on whether or not Quebec should split up from Canada. Levesque has been known since the 1950’s as a television commentator on (Point de Mire). He was also a minister in the 1960’s under Jean Lesage’s Liberal council. Lesage did not support the break up and by 1963 Levesque was publicly supporting the cause. Soon after Levesque called the Royal Commission and made it very clear that he believed that Bilingualism and Biculturalism couldn’t be fused into one. In 1967 Levesque issued “Option Quebec” (a liberal party policy paper promoting separatism aims.) This promotion paper was defeated and in October Levesque Quite the liberal party and then formed an independent party “Movement Sourverainete Association” MSA. Levesque represented the East (French) and Trudeau represented the West (English speaking.)

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