David Bourbonnais’ music video, Indépendant, is one of the entrants in the La tête à Papineau contest.
In Of Montreal, Robert Everett-Green writes weekly about the people, places and events that make Montreal a distinctive cultural capital.
Bring me the head of Louis-Joseph Papineau. There's no evidence that those words were ever said by Lord Gosford, governor of Lower Canada in 1837, though he may have considered putting the Patriote leader's head in a noose. Twelve of Papineau's followers were hanged after their armed revolt, and many others went into exile. Papineau escaped to the U.S., which meant that no one ever collected the $4,000 reward Gosford offered for his capture.
La Société Saint-Jean-Baptiste thinks it has found a better purpose for that sum, as prize money for the three best short videos about an independent future for Quebec. The online contest is called La tête à Papineau, and it's open to anyone willing to share "your dreams or your vision of a free Quebec."
Grappling with that assignment in 30 to 90 seconds worth of video is a steep challenge, which may be part of the point. Several decades of proselytizing and intermittent hard campaigning haven't brought the province closer to independence. With the most recent referendum 20 years behind us, and both Parti Québécois and Bloc in decline, the cause may be at a low point. The SSJB clearly thinks it's time to see whether video artists and musicians have any better luck at rousing spirits and channelling the legendary mind of Papineau.
In Quebec, that's what la tête à Papineau means: a towering intellect. It's most often invoked in negative form, as "ça ne prend pas la tête à Papineau." You don't need Papineau's brain to figure that out, someone may say, meaning the thing is much more obvious than you thought. A sovereigntist might well say the same thing about the need for independence.
La tête à Papineau figures in Québécois culture as a trope that refers both to intelligence and to knowledge that's hiding in plain sight. Les Cowboys Fringants used it in a song in 2002, the chorus of which runs "Ça prend pas la tête à Papineau / Pour s'rendre compte qu'on manqué le métro." You've missed the bus, we might say in English, as any fool can see. A lot of Quebec sovereigntists feel, with some anguish, that the whole province missed the bus in 1995, though the Cowboys song doesn't refer to anything overtly nationalistic.
The man with the famous brain, however, makes a rather ambiguous symbol for a free Quebec, as historian Yvan Lamonde points out in his new book on the Patriote leader's political ideas. Papineau is assumed to be the father of the independence movement, Lamonde writes in Fais ce que dois, advienne que pourra, but he has also become "the bearer of deceptions, defeats and frustrations." The two Patriote revolts were clearly forecast in Papineau's speeches, but abysmally prepared as military deeds. They hurt the cause and hastened the Act of Union of 1840, a forced and unfair marriage with Upper Canada.
Even before the revolts, "c'est la faute à Papineau" was a popular catchphrase in the province. A many-versed song from 1835, which may be partly satirical, lists all kinds of evils, real or imagined, and concludes in each case that it's all Papineau's fault.
As a nationalist prophet, his record is mixed. He argued sometimes for independence, but also mused favourably on the benefits of annexation by the United States. Encouraged by the example of Louisiana, he imagined that the francophone culture of Lower Canada would be safer in the talons of the eagle than in the claws of the lion, as people said back then. Today, only about 2 per cent of the population of Louisiana speak French. If Quebec had gone the same way, someone would have surely said it was Papineau's fault.
Even the material commemorations of the great man are less fervent than they might appear. Montreal has an Avenue Papineau and a Papineau metro station, but both memorialize his father, also a leading politician. The sumptuous house Papineau occupied in Old Montreal is now a National Historic Site, but after his death it was put to many commercial purposes, and eventually became a rooming house. It wasn't protected by law till 1965.
No matter. Papineau was a patriot in every way, and his face, name and "4,000 piastres de recompense" are evidently good enough for the SSJB's short-video contest. One of the competition co-sponsors is Cap sur l'indépendance, an umbrella group for sovereigntist organizations. The Cap's website features hopeful updates about Catalonia's bid for autonomy, and a "list of militant actions" that include cancelling your subscription to La Presse, which sided with the "No" forces in 1995.
The contest itself has had a slow start. All entries are posted online by the entrants; a week after the launch, only two had been uploaded. Everyone else has till May 3 to answer the SSJB's harried question, "Demain, un Québec libre?!" The winners will be chosen by a four-person jury and by public voting, and some entries will be part of the launch of Écranlibre.tv, an SSJB-related video service coming online in May.
Whatever else may show up on the site, I'm liking David Bourbonnais's music video Indépendant, a catchy patter-song whose verses about one thing and another all cash out on the phrase "Moi, j'dirais oui!" It's a clever play on the fact that almost the only sovereigntist success to date has been to align its side, through two referendums, with affirmation. They would say yes; they would have everyone say yes. I'm not sure about the outcome they propose, but to this video, j'dirais oui aussi.
Editor's note: An earlier version of this story incorrectly described Papineau's house as a museum. It is in fact a National Historic Site.