"Everyone living in the province is a Quebecker 'without exception' "

ik - you know, if someone could convince me that this really would be the vision of an independent Québec, I would probably sign on. Sadly, I think far too many people are still to hung up on their personal identities and categories to see this as a real possibility.

Funny how Gilles Duceppe can have English roots, but people still point out that Pierre Trudeau was part English, and the Bloc even pointed out in the House that Jean Charest's name really is - gasp - John Charest.

It's a nice dream, Gilles. But I'm not convinced you'd say this to a French paper.

(Oh, and another thing. If, as you are quoted as saying below, your independent Québec will remain part of the British Commonwealth, wouldn't that mean that the Queen would remain Head of State? Exactly what *would* change under separation, Mr. Duceppe?)


By DANIEL LEBLANC
Thursday, December 22, 2005 Posted at 3:51 AM EST
From Thursday's Globe and Mail

MATANE, QUE. — Bloc Québécois Leader Gilles Duceppe likes to call himself a "bloke who turned Bloc."

The chief advocate for Quebec sovereignty in Ottawa is one-quarter English, through his maternal grandfather. John James Rowley was one of the so-called British Home Children, orphans and destitute children who were shipped to Canada in the early 1900s.

Mr. Duceppe had fond memories of watching Friday night boxing matches on English TV with his grandfather, who translated the commentary into French for him. He has less pleasant memories of neighbours in the 1950s telling his grandfather he wasn't a true Quebecker.

Mr. Duceppe says his mixed heritage helps explain his views on sovereignty. His desire for an independent Quebec is less rooted in the French-English battles of the past as in his desire for a modern, French-speaking state on North American soil. He wants to change the perception that the sovereigntist movement, which long had the slogan Le Québec aux Québécois (Quebec for Quebeckers), consisted only of pure laine old-stock francophones.

"Nobody can pretend to be of a single origin," Mr. Duceppe said in an interview this week at the back of his campaign bus during a tour in the Gaspé region. "We are part of a large entity. Closing yourself off is a fundamental mistake."

It may sound paradoxical, but Mr. Duceppe, 58, argues that the increasingly borderless world is a key argument in favour of Quebec's independence. Mr. Duceppe likes to point out not just where he comes from, but where his two children are going, working on movie sets in places such as Italy, Japan and Newfoundland.

A former Marxist-Leninist turned social democrat, Mr. Duceppe presents himself as the polite and respectful face of Quebec nationalism, saying that everyone living in the province is a Quebecker "without exception." His goal is to persuade a majority of them to vote for independence and to get the rest of Canada to give up the fight, saying the separation of Quebec would be good for them, too.

"The day that Quebec becomes sovereign, I think Canada will go through its own Quiet Revolution," he said. "Canadians will discover their role in the world and discover that they are fundamentally different than the Americans. I'm not saying better or worse, but different, with a different conception of the world, of society and of liberty."

Mr. Duceppe said an independent Quebec would share many values with Canada, although his new country would respect the "national identity" of Quebeckers. It would be a place where people from all over the world share a common public language, French.

"I want a sovereign Quebec that would be open to the world, but most importantly, open to Canada," he said. "We have a shared past. We have had our problems, but we didn't have any wars like the Germans and the French. They went on to create the European Union, so we'd be off to a much better start."

Mr. Duceppe's grandfather left England when he was 16 after his parents separately committed suicide by jumping into the Thames River. Mr. Rowley's older sister was unable to care for him and his brother, so in 1911 they were sent with other Home Children by boat to Halifax and then by train to Quebec, where they were offered as cheap labour at various stations.

Mr. Rowley was fit and strong, but only five feet tall. He was passed over at the first seven stations until he was picked by the Leduc family to work on their farm west of Montreal.

Mr. Rowley integrated into Quebec society, in part with the help of Mrs. Leduc, who spoke a bit of English. In his late 20s, Mr. Rowley married Marie-Joseph Pilon, a francophone from nearby Rigaud, and they moved to Montreal. Ms. Pilon never learned English and Mr. Rowley spoke only with a slight accent in French.

One of their daughters, Hélène, married Jean Duceppe, who would become one of Quebec's best-known actors. Hélène and Jean were bilingual; day-to-day life was conducted in French, but they spoke English when they didn't want the children to understand.

Gilles Duceppe said his father often travelled abroad to watch plays and buy the rights to stage some of them at home. Jean Duceppe developed a close working relationship with Arthur Miller and brought his plays to Quebec. When a television series was produced a few years ago on the life of Jean Duceppe (who died in 1990), the producers inquired about using scenes from Death of a Salesman. The price to purchase the rights was prohibitive, Gilles Duceppe said, until Mr. Miller heard about their inquiry. "If it's for Jean Duceppe, it's free," Mr. Miller said.

Gilles Duceppe said that even if his father was a strong Quebec nationalist, he didn't close himself off from the outside world. "My father went to see more plays in London than in Paris," Mr. Duceppe said. "Papa wasn't anti-English, he was against injustice."

Mr. Duceppe said that as a boy, he was involved in a few battles of his own, such as the time francophone children had to stand in the buses that brought anglophone children to his bilingual school. He decided one day to sit down, and was slapped by a teacher who objected to this. Mr. Duceppe said he slapped back.

Mr. Duceppe entered the trade union movement after university. He said that after attracting anglophone hospital workers to his union, he surprised some of his colleagues by ensuring that there would be simultaneous translation at the meetings. "You can't ask people to sign up and not offer them services," he said.

Mr. Duceppe's two children are both in the movie business, Amélie, 31, behind the camera, and Alexis, 26, in sound. Alexis recently finished five weeks of shooting in Newfoundland, and both have projects lined up overseas.

Mr. Duceppe said he is not fighting the global trend toward further integration. "When Jacques Cartier came over, he wasn't here as a tourist. He was opening new markets."

He said he would want an independent Quebec to be part of the British Commonwealth, and that Canada should remain in the Francophonie. "We'd have two voices on the international stages instead of one," he said.

Mr. Duceppe said he doesn't foresee any problems resulting from an independent Quebec splitting Canada in two geographically, pointing out that Alaska and Hawaii are separated from the American mainland. He said that there would always be a free flow of goods and people between the Maritimes and Ontario through Quebec.

"Political borders are no longer economic borders," he said. "In Europe, people go through borders without any problems. We're not going to create new ones."