In 1974, I returned from Paris with a doctorate in hand. I quickly knew then that I was no longer the one who had left Quebec. France had transformed me by confronting me with a new vision of politics and ideologies.
I had known the Gaullist right, which bore us affection, and also the far right, which was not very reassuring. But also the left, which I considered to be more open, more egalitarian and more free-spirited. In fact, by dint of frequenting this Parisian, intellectual and media left, I lost my illusions. This left inoculated me in a way against the excesses of supposedly progressive thought in the second half of the 20th century.e century.
I had not freed myself by my own means from the narrow-minded Catholic culture, filled with prohibitions of reactionary nationalism to allow myself to be indoctrinated by Marxist-Leninists, Maoists and other Trotskyists. The latter were generally macho, smug and intolerant. Moreover, they turned out to be terrible social profiteers. They spread their anti-American vision while dreaming of being invited, all expenses paid, to universities in the United States to spread their revolutionary good word. Lenin, Trotsky and Mao exhilarated them.
INFILTRATION
This gogauche did not spare us in Quebec. Generations of students seduced by the abstruse theories of teacher-gurus have raged and still rage in this high place of knowledge that is the university.
This goleft has also succeeded in infiltrating the unions and transforming some of them into cells that are as discreet as they are influential.
It must be said that Quebec naivety was and still is fertile ground for agitators disguised as friends of the people.
René Lévesque, one of the greatest democrats of modern Quebec, was always wary of these rigid and moralizing “intellectuals”.
He remembered the clerical reign when preachers from the top of the pulpit decreed at election time that heaven was blue and hell was red. A way of reminding the docile people to vote for the Blue National Union and against the Red Liberal Party.
Québec solidaire is a party that claims to be a modern left, open to the look of the young and handsome Gabriel, its standard bearer as effective and brittle. This party attracts both citizens who advocate profound changes to combat social inequalities, but also anti-capitalists and wokes against secularism and other Quebec “liberticide” laws.
DISCRETION
The QS showcase does not necessarily display its intentions. Its shadow thinkers, pure and hard ideologues, do not expose themselves in the media. They remain in their pharmacies endlessly discussing the ongoing revolution.
QS coincidentally attracts the victimized minorities so dear to Justin Trudeau, who in his own way deconstructs Canada, including Quebec, before our eyes.
It also attracts young people, thirsty to do battle with the old. They should stop informing themselves on social media of all the falsehoods and delve into the often tedious but enlightening writings of those who have devoted their studious lives to seeking light and not darkness.
Clearly, GND is less free, less united and less transparent than what it displays. By declaring for example that Iranian women are fighting for their “dignity”. In fact, they risk their lives by opposing the wearing of the hijab imposed by the ayatollahs. GND censures itself from criticizing Iran, because QS opposes the Quebec law against the veil.