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QUEBEC — Quebec's Premier has joined France in extolling General Charles de Gaulle's 1967 “ Vive le Québec libre” speech in Montreal as the most important step toward building strong diplomatic ties between the two jurisdictions.
The late French president's contribution to Quebec-France relationships needs to be emphasized more strongly, Premier Jean Charest said yesterday, a day after French Prime Minister François Fillon indirectly praised the remark in a speech marking the 400th anniversary of Quebec City.
“To be able to talk about it 40 years later by placing it into its proper historical context by recalling how much Gen. de Gaulle's visit was significant to our relations, significant for the evolution of Quebec, there is an important signal here about the maturity of our relationship,” Mr. Charest said.
Gen. de Gaulle's speech created a major diplomatic incident that drove a wedge between Canada and France and boosted separatist fervour in Quebec. But the time has come to look beyond “the traumas of the past,” Mr. Charest said, and “remove the wedge from the relationship.”
“This means that to be able to talk about it without inevitably falling into the debate about sovereignty or federalism seems to me to be an important indication of the maturity of the relationship that we have. We have to talk about it … we can't not talk about Gen. de Gaulle,” Mr. Charest said.
Mr. Fillon's reference to the 1967 de Gaulle speech appeared to be a deliberate attempt to reassure Quebec that, while French President Nicolas Sarkozy is determined to launch a new era of co-operation with Canada, France has not abandoned Quebec.
“This new era is simple,” Mr. Fillon said yesterday. “Quebeckers are our brothers and Canadians are our friends. We want to be best of friends with Canadians and we want to maintain our special relationship, our specific relationship, our historic relationship that ties us to Quebec. And that is what I am doing today.”
Mr. Fillon made it clear that France has turned over a new leaf in its relations with Canada and Quebec by abandoning its policy of “non-interference and non-indifference” with respect to Quebec nationalism. He said that invoking Gen. de Gaulle's remarks was an attempt to show that since 1967, Quebec and France have developed direct and privileged diplomatic ties without threatening Canadian national unity.
“In no way do we want to get involved in the internal affairs of Quebec or Canada. But it is not abnormal that when we come to invoke the 400th anniversary of the founding of Quebec City, that we also invoke a historical event that had the effect in France … to turn the spotlight on French-Quebec relations,” Mr. Fillon said. “Rest assured that I did not come here to create a new diplomatic incident in Quebec.”
In a bilateral meeting yesterday, Mr. Charest and Mr. Fillon signed several agreements, including a plan to seek common objectives in drastically reducing global warming. A unique manpower agreement will allow the free flow of workers between France and Quebec. Mr. Charest said the agreement will become official in October when Mr. Sarkozy attends the Francophonie summit in Quebec City.
On Thursday, Mr. Fillon said the manpower agreement is between “ deux pays, deux pays francophones” (two countries, two francophone countries). Yesterday, he apologized for using the term pays, which created some confusion about whether France was suddenly treating Quebec as a sovereign country.
“I should have said between two ‘nations,' ” Mr. Fillon said. “You know the word pays has many meanings. I am myself president of a pays. I am French Prime Minister, but I am also president of the pays du Vallée de la Sarthe. Where I come from a pays is a place where there are paysans. Forgive me for my choice of words. Naturally it was not my intention to undermine Canadian territorial unity.”
