Revisiting history: opening old wounds or recognizing uncomfortable truths?

KAMOURASKA, QUE.—My great-grandmother was a bigot. Born in Quebec City in the mid-19th century, she had never set foot in Ireland, but she held to the anti-Catholic prejudice her Ulster Protestant parents inculcated in her. She forbade my grandfather from marrying into a wealthy and powerful Quebec Irish Catholic family. After five years, he gave up and eventually married my grandmother, a Protestant. His brother, knowing his mother's bigotry, secretly wed his French-Canadian bride in Bombay, India (now Mumbai) and sent a telegram home to announce the news. The next morning, a response arrived from Quebec City: "I would rather you were dead than married to a Catholic." The centuries-old prejudices of her parents had sunk in well. I cite this story as I am struggling with an event about to take place here in Kamouraska. The local museum, on whose board I sit, will be commemorating the 260th anniversary of what it calls “a dark event in local history,” on Sept. 7. Gaston Deschênes' book, L'Année des Anglais, or, the Year of the English. Photograph courtesy of Septentrion In September of 1759, just a few days before his soldiers climbed to the Plains of Abraham to confront Montcalm's French troops, General James Wolfe sent 1,600 troops downriver to Kamouraska to burn a thousand homes and barns. This “Année des Anglais” (Year of the English) was described in a 1989 book by nationalist historian Gaston Deschênes. Deschênes will speak at the event, at which a large plaque will be unveiled. My quandary stems from two sources: my Anglo-Quebec roots, and my abhorrence of nationalism. Given my Scots-Irish-Barbadian-French roots, I hardly qualify as “English," but neither did Wolfe's Fraser Highlanders. And Les Anglais have been blamed for Quebec's ills for decades, despite the fact the Irish working class, Scots professionals, and other Europeans were hardly the "Westmount Rhodesians" who dominated Quebec business in the mid-20th century. Secondly, most conflicts in the 20th century can be traced to the scourge of nationalism, defined as "identification with one's own nation … to the exclusion or detriment of the interests of other nations." While we may have hoped it was tossed in the dustbin of history at the millennium, nationalism is rearing its ugly head in exclusionist movements in Europe, Asia, and here in North America. In Quebec, the CAQ government’s Bill 21 excludes practising Muslims and Jews from positions of authority under the guise of the “laicity of the state.” Its critics say it marginalizes “les autres (non-European and non-Francophone citizens)” from being part of “the Québec nation” which according to the law’s preamble, “has its own characteristics … distinct social values and a specific history.” Hence my quandary over the unveiling of this monument. I am a student of history, and this event is well documented, by the British themselves. But by commemorating this footnote in Canadian history, are we not pandering to present-day Quebec nationalists? Or is this a recognition of local history, warts and all, which needs to be recognized by the community? I also take issue with Deschênes’ narrative, which effectively ends in the summer of 1760, with Quebec in ruins. This was before the Treaty of Paris of 1763, when France abandoned Canada and retained St-Pierre and Miquelon and three islands in the Caribbean. Voltaire famously scoffed at the value of Canada, calling it “a few acres of snow.” Deschênes ignores the support provided by the British to Canadien settlers to reconstruct their livelihoods, but describes how the colony’s economy “magically” doubled from pre-1759 levels in the next decade. Nor does he mention the Quebec Act of 1774, which established civil rights for Catholics and the French Civil Code. These initiatives, sought by British Governors James Murray and Guy Carleton, laid the foundations for modern Quebec. While the British were not angels, they pragmatically recognized the need for reconciliation and growth after the global conflict that devastated the Canadiens. To me, history must include the whole story to truly be history: unfairly excluding the other side reinforces ignorance, and prejudice. Meanwhile, in the old cemetery of Kamouraska lies John Fraser, known as “Jean le Gros (Fat John)” former 78th Fraser Highlander with Wolfe, who settled here with a French-Canadian wife. His descendants and those of many comrades are now very Québécois, not “English.” As for my great-grandmother, when my great-uncle and his bride moved back to Canada, she grew to love her Catholic grandchildren and their mother. As it should be, her prejudice faded with love and understanding. Andrew Caddell is retired from Global Affairs Canada, where he was a senior policy adviser. He previously worked as an adviser to Liberal governments. He is a fellow with the Canadian Global Affairs Institute and a principal of QIT Canada. He can be reached at pipson52@hotmail.com. The Hill Times

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Revisiting history: opening old wounds or recognizing uncomfortable truths?

Kamouraska, Que., will soon be commemorating the 1759 burning of thousands of homes and barns by British General James Wolfe. But should it?

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