Quebec Referendum #3: Beyond The Pedagogy Of Fear -Opportunity?
Posted on Tuesday, June 07 at 12:10 by PatriotPete
What Trudeau started by repatriating the constitution must be continued, not by the old boy's elitist club of premiers and the PM, but by the democratic actions of an informed citizenry, constituted within a constitutional constituent assembly whose members are not MPs with a vested interested in the old legal order, but members elected directly by the people of Canada.
No doubt this view will not be popular, no doubt there are many who want to continue on with the prevailing legal/institutional relations--relations that give us this low-level democracy, captured as it is by capital, intent upon bowing to 'deep integration' and continentalist forces.
We must not buy into the pedagogy of fearful propaganda that the mainstream political parties and the corporate press will be seeding within the consciousness of Canadians, a pedagogy that seeks to freeze us in historical time, that seeks to stifle the winds of change that are blowing over this nation.
What is coming in Quebec may be an historical opportunity for all the people of Canada to become empowered and to modernize our constitutional legal relations. If Quebecers leave to form a sovereign nation, we sovereign peoples who remain outside of Quebec must not allow the prime minister and the premiers to decide our collective fate. Neither can we allow corporations, 'professional politicians,' the cadre of political parties, nor left or right wing 'think tanks' to complete or unduly influence that task. Rather it is our right, nay, our duty as citizens to reinvigorate this democracy and protect our sovereignty as a people constituted within a differently constituted independent state--a state that refuses the continentalist dream of one continent politically and economically united.
The fact is that we as sovereign peoples on the northern half of this continent are day by day being 'sold out' to corporate America and its military-technological complex. The old order is failing all of us. Like Quebecers, we all deserve to establish new rules to govern ourselves. New rules to preserve our cultural, economic and social sovereignty. New rules to invigorate our democracy. If it takes the eventuality of another Quebec referendum to jolt us out of our collective slumber as we collectively slouch toward the nightmare of 'deeper integration'--this patriotic Canadian is all for it.
[Proofreader's note: this article was edited for spelling and typos on June 7, 2005]
Contributed By
Topic
Article Rating
(0 votes)
Options
Stumble It!Comments
view comments in forum
Page 1
What Quebecers don't seem to understand is that if they want to be part of this country it has to be on equal footing with the rest of us; you don't get a united country by creating special laws for certain groups (as a point in fact look at all the special considerations Quebec already has and unity is far off). If they want to separate, let them vote for actual sovereignty and not some crap sovereignty association and let the question be crystal clear that this is what separation means (in other words, the teat will be withdrawn). Also, they should understand that a vote for separation doesn't mean a pretty little dividing line down their provincial border, as there are other details to be resolved, especially with regards to Natives in the North who indicated strongly the last time they have no interest in joining a sovereign Quebec. Also, there will have to be some form of repayment (we will take Montreal) for the net gains Quebec has made under equalization payments. After all, that money was not given to build a separate Quebec but to support a province as part of Canada.
Wake up and smell the rot, emanating from Ottawa,
caused by a dysfunctional political system and quisling
politicians ...that, per your many previous posts...is
selling this nation & its people out to Corporate/Military
America. Canada cannot survive as a nation the way
things are, the old rules are failing us. This is not a
time to wishfully hold onto old rules and power cliques
which have failed us. Should the people of Quebec
choose to seek sovereignty and a new begining for
themselves, it is a large opportunity to
re-write the rules of how the citizens in Quebec and the
rest of Canada will govern themselves. It is very
possible to reach a co-operative accord with Quebec
that will benefit both the peoples of Quebec & that of
Canada.
You have seem to have bought the neo-liberal
Capitalist State line 'hook, line and sinker.
The only change I'd make is in revising 'top to bottom' to read 'bottom to top', as any change is unlikely to start from the top and work down and, at any rate, the changes required should start at the grassroots and work their way up.
---
"When we are in the middle of the paradigm, it is hard to imagine any other paradigm" (Adam Smith).