Bombs in the Quiet Land

For eleven weeks a campaign of terror has rocked the French Canadian province of Quebec, and sent shock waves rippling all across Canada. Last month a bomb ex plosion killed the night watchman at a Montreal army recruiting center. A fortnight ago, 13 time bombs were found in mailboxes in a Montreal suburb, and a Canadian army explosives expert was critically injured when one of them went off in his face. Last week 18 more sticks of dynamite were found planted in mailboxes in Quebec City, and an explosion shattered offices at the Montreal armory of the Royal Canadian Electrical and Mechanical Engineers.

Bombs may be common in the southern part of the Western Hemisphere, but what was going on in peaceful Canada? Near some of the bombsites appeared the signature FLQ, meaning Front de Liberation Quebecois. The Front is a lunatic fringe of violent nationalists whose aim is the secession of French-speaking Quebec from the rest of English-speaking Canada. Estimates of its strength run from a handful to a few score--and so far the cops have no idea who the leaders are. But neither Quebec's Premier Jean Lesage nor the federal government of Prime Minister Lester Pearson dismisses the FLQ lightly. For behind the bombs and bombast lie deep-rooted grievances that affect all of French Canada's 5,500,000 citizens. The vast majority of them do not want to be separate. But they do want to be equal.

Second Class. Ever since colonial days, Quebec's French-speaking population has bitterly resented traditional British domination of Canada's economy and government. In 1867, when Canada won self-rule, the fathers of Canadian confederation wrote into the British North America Act Quebec's inalienable right to its own language, Roman Catholic religion and cultural identity. Just the same, Quebec's citizens believe that their status is still second-class. Partly, French Canadians can blame themselves. For nearly two decades, Quebec was ruled as the personal fief of Premier Maurice Duplessis, who held the province in corrupt, paternalistic thrall. Only after he died could French Canada see clearly where it stood in relation to the rest of the country.

Belatedly, French Canadians fully realized that next door, English-speaking Ontario had become the economic heart of Canada while Quebec remained less developed, its natural resources controlled by outsiders. Moreover, while French Canadians comprised nearly 30% of Canada's population, they held only 13% of the responsible jobs in civil service. They found that although Canada was officially bilingual, French was a working language only in Quebec--a manifestation of what Quebec Natural Resources Minister Rene Levesque calls "the Kenya colonist outlook." He adds: "There are already people asking why the English have so many rights and privileges in Quebec when the French don't have them elsewhere."

Bon Mot. One of the principal elsewheres is the federal capital of Ottawa, where a French-speaking civil servant who receives a letter in French must send it to a translation bureau to be put into English. Even French-speaking civil servants are required to communicate with each other in English; it simplifies filing.

Campaigning in last month's national elections, Lester Pearson promised a new deal for French Canada, and so far he has been as ban as his mot. A phone call to a federal Cabinet Minister these days brings the answer: "Office of the minister; bureau du ministre." At an early Cabinet meeting, Pearson became the first English-speaking Prime Minister in living memory to join in a discussion entirely in French--one in which no fewer than 18 of his 26 ministers could have participated with ease.

Toward a Partnership. Most important of all, Pearson has appointed a minister "in charge of biculturalism," a suave, former economics professor from Quebec City's Laval University named Maurice Lamontagne. His responsibilities range from ordering reinforcements for the hard-pressed translation bureau to setting up a bilingual Institute of Public Affairs as a sort of finishing school (on government time) for new recruits to the civil service. He will also organize a Royal Commission on biculturalism, which will recommend ways "to develop the Canadian confederation on the basis of an equal partnership between the two founding races"--meaning more French in Canada's government, in its schools and over its radio and TV.

In the government's traditional Throne Speech to Parliament, Pearson listed biculturalism as one of Canada's major problems. "I cannot imagine anything at this time more serious to the progress, indeed, to the survival of our country." And, obviously aiming his words at Quebeckers agitating for secession, he added: "You cannot have a bicultural country without having a country. So Quebec, to be Quebec, must be Quebec in Canada."

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