“All my life
I’ve had a certain idea of Canada. The partnership between French and
English is an abiding, permanent, and constant part of my own identity
as a Canadian.
It is hard to imagine Canada without it.” (Bob Rae, From Protest to
Power). It’s in this context that the reaction to the alleged statement
of Jamie Carroll, national director of the Liberal Party (and by the
time you read this probably the “former director”) must be read,
although Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion was standing by him on Friday.
Carroll’s alleged answer to the request of some members from Quebec to
have more ‘Quebecers’ in the Leader’s Office (“If I hire more Quebecers,
will I also have to hire more Chinese?”) seems like a joke, depending on
the tone and delivery. But taken at face value, it is not a joke. And
the vehement reaction against it by Liberals in Quebec highlights the
multicultural fraud perpetrated by the Liberals against the so-called
ethnic groups.
First, it is clear from Carroll’s statement that a “Québécois” cannot be
someone of Chinese origin. Secondly, from the reaction of the French and
political leaders from Quebec, it’s also clear that his interpretation
is right. The request to have more representatives at the top of the
Liberal Party is part of the special “partnership between French and
English,” as Rae was alluding to in his book. It is not a geographic
partnership between people living in Quebec and the rest of the country,
it’s a partnership based on race and culture.
It’s a “partnership” that has always guided and inspired the politics of
the Liberal Party since the late 1980s, and their leaders have always
subtly abided by that unscripted rule: French and English on one side,
ethnics and aboriginals on the other. That’s what Liberal
multiculturalism is all about: a snapshot of the past on a shining frame
for future generations.
It’s hard for everybody to define this “partnership” if you’re not
prepared to tell the truth. That’s why the Liberals always beat around
the bush with strong generic statements filled with platitudes, and
that’s why they were against Meech Lake and the “distinct society” of
former Conservative prime minister Brian Mulroney. Mulroney tried to
define what the Liberals have always practised but never spoke about. In
fact, Mulroney failed because he was not able to say how “they” were
“distinct” and, more importantly, “distinct” from who? The Liberals felt
in danger because they knew that the distinctiveness was unspoken, but
very well-defined in their actions.
That’s why they had, and still have, the alternating process for the
election of their leaders, they have established quotas for Quebec in
many sectors based on everything but logic and mathematics. Of course
there is a “distinct society” in Ottawa, they were only upset with Brian
Mulroney because he was telling everybody about it and wanted to put it
in the Constitution.
Of course they deny it, but take a look at the “alternating process”
that sees a Francophone and Anglophone at the top of their party. Says
Quebec Liberal MP Denis Coderre: “It was not a historic accident and we
shouldn’t forget our traditions.” And, he said that ‘alternance’ “has
nothing to do with geography, it has everything to do with culture.
That’s why we have to be very careful.”
(The Hill Times,
April 3, 2006).
They were afraid to define that distinctiveness because they were afraid
that one day, someone might ask them: “If I hire more Quebecers, will I
also have to hire more Chinese?” Well, that question has been asked and
they want Carroll out. They might succeed in pushing him out, but they
will not be able to put the toothpaste back into the tube.
The real face of the Liberal multiculturalism is exposed for everybody
to see and I hope that somebody from the party that gets thousands of
votes from the so-called “ethnics” will ask the people who want Carroll
out a simple question: “What’s wrong in hiring more Canadians of Chinese
origin?” From that answer might depend the future of the Liberal Party,
an organization that has been able to convince Canadians, like former
Ontario premier Bob Rae, that their leaders are the only ones able to
keep the country together. That might be true, but it is also true that
they are the only ones able to set the stage for a disaster to create a
need for their presence. Just like a fireman that sets the house on fire
and then he wants a medal for putting the fire out.
That’s what this dispute is all about, but with a twist: this time it’s
not the future of Confederation on the line, but the future of the
Liberal Party of Canada, which, for the first time, has been forced to
face the new reality of this country after 36 years.
It was April 1971 when Pierre Trudeau said that in Canada “there is no
culture less than or greater than another culture.” If Jamie Carroll is
fired, it means that Trudeau’s statement didn’t actually mean anything.
