Some Racist Slips about Quebec in English Canada between 1995 and 1998 (1)

ABSTRACT/RESUME This article analyses, from a selection of newspapers articles, some tendencies that appeared in English Canada since the 1995 referendum. Examining several events in the media (cases Rakoff, Lawrence Martin, Diane Francis, Gerry Weiner, David Levine ...), the analysis shows how marginalized discourses went through several stages of racism (Wieviorka 1991), leading to a slightly more systematic racist opinion within the Rest of and to a verbal violence that occurs often enough that the problem can no longer be considered secondary. In a particular case (Levine), racism even became a principle of action and mobilization which reached several (journalistic, political, popular) spheres of society. To illustrate the spread, the banalization, and the legitimization of a certain racist discourse (which uses universal arguments to delegitimize the Other), the analysis emphasizes the link between discourse and theory in the light of recent scientific works which define the structure, the discur sive elements, and the mechanisms for the production of racism. L' article analyse certaines [much less than]derives racistes[much greater than] survenues au Canada anglais depuis le referendum de 1995. A partird'une selection d'articles de la presse anglo-canadienne et travers l'examen de plusieurs [much less than]evenements[much greater than] mediatises ([much less than]affaires[much greater than] Rakoff, Lawrence Martin, Diane Francis, Gerry Weiner, David Levine), l'analyse indique comment les discours [much less than]marginalises[much greater than] ant franchi plusieurs [much less than]paliers[much greater than] du racisme (Wieviorka, 1991), en faisant place a une opinion un peu plus sytematique dans le [much less than]Reste du Canada[much greater than] et une violence verbale suffisamment repetitive pour que le probleme ne soit plus juge secondaire. Dans un cas particulier, celui de [much less than]l'affaire Levine[much greater than], le racisme est meme devenu un principe d'action et de mobilisation atteignant plusieurs milieux (journalistique, politique, populaire). Afin d'illustrer Ia fois l'extension, la banalisation et la legitimation d'un certain discours raciste (qui fait usage d'arguments universalistes a des fins de delegitimation de [much less than]l'Autre[much greater than]), l'analyse fait ressorti r les liens entre discours et theories la lumiere des travaux scientifiques recents qui definisent la structure, les elements de discours et les mecanismes de production du racisme. Introduction National representations are generally Janus-like; they all contain elements of universalism and ethnicism, of abstract rationalism and tribalism. These faces or heads lying at the foundation of nations (contract and culture) do not always strike a balance: certain socio-historical conditions and events favour their reversal or struggle. In Canada, it is within the relations of competition between visions that the tension between the faces is constantly reactivated. Although the Canadian and national visions have undergone a parallel development (Meisel, Rocher, and Silver 1999) toward an increasingly civic, contractual, pluralistic, and inclusive self-definition, (2) political relations among Quebeckers and between Quebeckers and other Canadians (3) are still imbued with an essentialist conception of an Us and an Other. Through a selection of often reified historical elements, a mythical construction of the nation and the Other was formed and remains active in relations between the two solitudes. Following constitutional negotiations or referendums, the political competition (4) between the universalist ambitions often reveals a breakdown of the universalist ideals into ethnicizing ideological discourses. This reversal is based on feelings of failure and fear, which fuel a will to promote, legitimate, and justify a certain political and institutional vision: on one side, the universalist of sovereignty is said to have been undermined by votes and money (Parizeau), (5) and, on the other side, Canadian federalism is considered to be more universalist, more apt to protect individual rights (and thus morally superior) than the Quebec project -- borne by an ethnic minority like the others. …

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