RICKY BLUE

Coincidence? Are you sure?

All these things happened recently. Is there any connection?

1. A biography of the prime minister of Canada reveals that he would not have accepted a slim separatist victory in the last referendum and might even have sent in the Canadian army to protect Canadians still living in Quebec.

2. Members of the government of Quebec in the National Assembly unanimously confirm that Quebec is a "nation." A separatist MNA stands up and unwittingly reveals why that statement is a lie: "Except the West Island!"

At a similar debate in Ottawa about Quebec being a "nation," one separatist MP flips the bird at the Canadian government. Another separatist MP sitting in our federal government declares that he is "not a Canadian."

3. Separatist creation L'Office de la langue française tells the mostly English-speaking borough of Cote St Luc/Hampstead/Montreal West that it has to 'francisize' its name or face prosecution. A biography of the father of Bill 101, Camille Laurin, is launched in Montreal.

4. Separatist zealots insult the democratically elected representative of a West Island borough at Montreal City Hall because she does not speak French well enough for them. During the election the mayor of Montreal did the same.

5. Separatist terrorists attack the West Island. They spray-paint obscene anti-Canadian slogans and the letters of a terrorist organization on the walls of the Baie d'Urfé town hall at 3:30 a.m. (Half an hour after the bars close. Coincidence? I don't think so). They are found to possess weapons, drugs, and explosives.

6. A Quebec court upholds a lawsuit against the late Richard Lafferty who implied in a small private subscription letter on investment years ago that separatist leaders were behaving like demagogues, like Nazis.

7. Ikea refused Canadian War veterans a place to sell their poppies by because they didn't think anybody would really care.

Synchronicity is a meaningful coincidence of two or more events, where something other than the probability of chance is involved.

Could it not be that separatism in Quebec, even as it is glossed over by the current politicians who advocate it, is still a very dangerous force that could yet drag this country into a civil war?

Could it not be that the insistence by this single group united by language, ethnic descent, and political opportunism that everyone within Quebec belongs to their self-styled "nation" is not only an exaggeration but also a dangerously divisive one?

Could it not be that using the power of this state to reinforce the identity of one group by erasing or reducing the identity of another group within those borders legalizes intolerance?

Could it not be that to constantly use this group as a scapegoat for all the vicissitudes of history and the failures of local governments makes it legitimate to hate them?

Could it not be that the small-time violence whipped up by these ideas and the zealots who preach them could easily escalate to include the loss of life?

Could it not be that many of the forces that are at work here might be similar to some of the forces of Ethnic Nationalism that were at work in the world in the 1930s? And could it not be that we have learned something from that period of world history?

Just asking. Lest we forget.

I hope you enjoyed Remembrance Day.