[1] It was, in fact, not the "Canada Act" but the British North America Act (BNA) that enamored Great Britain's Parliament and united, in 1867, its colonies in the North East of the United States of A. Thus, the so-called "Canadians" are Canadians only by usurpation since they appropriated a name that neither historically nor sociologically belonged to them. [Back to 1]
[2] This is how our predecessors spelled it before it was anglicized and changed to its present form. [Back to 2]
[3] In the Simon Bolivar sense of the word. [Back to 3]
[4] As soon as one ventures to translate into French these conceptual categories which belong to a British way of thinking, their smaliest components soon give rise to controversial interpretations. If "land" becomes "territoire" rather than "terre," what are the judicial implications of such a translation? In this country where everything - and particularly translationÛis on the negotiating table, the Anglo text always prevails. In fact, one is forced to recognize that in Canada French or any other thought that expresses itself in any language other than English does not enjoy any judicial status whatsoever. In other words, conceptually Canada is not a bilingal country - particularly not with respect to Natives. Theoretically, it is thus impossible for any Quebecois - or Native thinking to be territorially, spiritually or judicially recognized in the Constitution. For each and every minority and minoritized group in British North America only translated thought can have the force of law - everything else is an illusion. [Back to 4]
[5] See "La couronne contre la terre," in Recherches amerindiennes au Quebec. Vol. 13, No. 3 (1983): 231-233. [Back to 5]
[6] See the report by the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples on this subject. [Back to 6]
[7] I was part of a team that began working on an Aboriginal Atlas of Canada. Greeted with great enthusiasm, this project was soon denied any support. It was feared Ûwith good reason, I must sayÛ that we would end up with a product that would outdo the Commission's own legacy regarding Canada as a Metis country. [Back to 7]
[8] Here I am alluding to Canique des Plaines (Lemeac/Actes Sud, 1993), published in English under the title Plainsong. This question is fundamental and at the same time bounces back on the Westem World's periphery if one also considers writers such as Michael Ondaatje or Emile Ollivier who, through their themes, create a third kind of memoryÛa memory that brings back to "Canada" a Third World from which one is able to perceive, amongst the clouds, a kind of third "intra-Canadian" world. All the while, these two sensibilities - the Third World made-in-Canada and the francophone or anglo third world imported into the countryÛrub shoulders with each other in their identical quest for a spiritual aesthetics. [Back to 8]
[9] See La nation metisse au Quebec (Ile du Grand Calumet, February 1994), tabled at the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples' public hearings, Ottawa, April 5 and 6, 1994. [Back to 9]
[10] All in all, 11 post-confederalist Treaties, called Numbered Treaties signed between 1870 and 1921; thus the 1975 James Bay Agreement or Disagreement, depending on whom one talks toÛcame de facto to be Treaty No. 12. [Back to 10]
[11] I have devoted several works to this subject, among thm LÌidentiÈ usurpÈe (Montreal: Nouvelle Optique, 1983), to which I'd like to refer the reader-. See also "Le syndrome de Poste-de-la-Baleine: I) De la Baie James phase deux a Oka phase deux!", in Le Devoir, 6 and 7 August 1991. [Back to 11]
[12] One of the most revealing analyses of this subject was recently submitted to the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples in Ottawa. See Martin F. Dunn "All My RelationsÛThe Other Metis" (March 1994, I55pp, plus appendix). [Back to 12]
[13] For some fragmentary but essential information on this question, see the interview with Rene Dussault (Co-president) in the special dossier "Le Quebec et les Autochtones," in Recherches amÈrindiennes au Quebec (Spring 1994). [Back to 13]
[14] The following passages are all literal quotations of remarks exchanged or overheard at the beginning of the day, everyday remarks which one usually hastens to forget as soon as one hears them. [Back to 14]
[15] "French-Canadian pure laine" ! [Back to 15]
[16] In Mitchif Creole. See Patline Laverdure & Ida-Rose Allard (under the editorship of Jolm C. Crawford), The Mitchif Dictionary Turtle Mountain Chippewa Cree (Winnipeg: Pemmican Publications, 1983). [Back to 16]
[17] Ia framboise - raspberry. [Back to 17]
[18] From among the countless works on what I consider to constitute the fundamental reality of myths in the founding of North America, I'd like to mention only two: one about the artistic sphere, the other about frenchified space. SeeTed J. Brasser, "In Search of Metis Art," in Jacqueline Peterson & Jennifer S. H. Brown, The New Peoples: Being and Becoming Aetis in North America (Winnipeg: Univ. of Manitoba Press, 1985): 221-229; and also Williarn Powers, "Les premiers contacts entre les Franc,ais [i.e. the Canadiens] et les Sioux: temoignage d'un ethnologue adopte par les Indiens," in oelle Rostkowski & Sylvie Devers, Destins Croises: Cinq siecles de rencontre avec les Arnerindiens (Paris: Albin MicheWnesco, 1992): 249-261. [Back to 18]
[19] Jack Kerouac, Book of Dreams (San Francisco: City Lights, 1961, rpt.1981), 23. [Back to 19]
[20] New York: Viking, 1983; rpt. 1991. [Back to 20]
[21] This book was written by Louise Seymour Houghton (210 pp) Boston: The Stratford Company, Publishers. [Back to 21]
[22] See "An America that Knows No Name", in
Dean Louder & Eric Wadell eds., French America, Mobility, Idenity and
Minority, Experience Across the Coninent (Baton Rouge & London: Louisiana
State Univ. Press, 1993) 337-348. The concluding essay by the editors,
''Tlle Search for Home in America: An Afterword" (348-358), deserves to
be read carefully. [Back to 22]
[23] Reported in Antoine Bourque, Trois Saisons. Cones. nouvllese et fables de Louisiane (Montreal: Louise Courteau, 1988),87. [Back to 23]
[24] See "Le taux de suicide chez les Quebecois ne cesse de grimper," in La Presse, May 1994. [Back to 24]
[25] Jack Kerouac, Book of Dreams, p. 118. [Back to 25]
[26] See Denis Vaugeois, "XLasagne, illustre descendant de la famille ... Montour," in Le Devoir, 5 July 1993. See also my own "Lettre ouverte a tous les 'Vice Versa' de l'univers," in Vice Versa, No. 48 (Jan/Feb 1995), 19-21 and ÏCaughnawaga ou le pelerinage aux sources," Vice Versa, No. 49 (July/Sept, 1995), 22-23. [Back to 26]
[27] Excerpts from "Quebec: I'epuisement des reves," in Conjonctures, No. 17 (1992): 2-23. [Back to 27]
[28] Carl Gustav Jung, "Anima and Animus," in "The Relations between the Ego and the Unconscious," in Two Essays on ,Analytical Psychology, trans. R..C.Hull, New York: Pantheon Books, 1953 (The Colleced Works of C G Jung. [Back to 28]
[29] A somewhat free translation of Cote du Beaver Hall! [Back to 29]
[30] See Benoit Aubin ìLe vrai serartatiste de Kahnawake. Billy Two-Rivers est un Mohawk profwssiuonel ...î in LíActualité, May 1994:51. [Back to 30]
[31] Canadien expressions meaning "wolf-manitou" and "were-lynx". [Back to 31]
[32] The "walking highway," the original Native and Canadien name for the St. Lawrence. [Back to 32]
[33] See my "L'autre et le non-soi ou le Kadlounisme
oblige", in vice-Versa, Vol.
2, No. 4 (June/July 1985): 12-13. [Back
to 33]
[34] He holds a degree in theology from the Universite de Montreal. [Back to 34]
[35] From an unpublished manuscript called
Hai1i Deliberee / Quebec Inassollvi
all I'Amerique franco-creole an quete de son destin. Montreal /
Port-au- Prince, 198 (250 pp). [Back to
35]
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