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MAITRES CHEZ QUI?...
and Gilbert make no mention of Levesque or the PQ, it is evident that the
“heritage” they speak of emerged during the Quiet Revolution. As mentioned
in the section on cultural geography, it was in the 1960s that historians and
geographers began actively studying French-Canadian culture and its “socio¬
territorial reality." It would be naive to think that the discourses employed by
Lévesque and the PQ had no effect on the manner in which these scholars, and
Québec’s French-speakers more generally, came to understand their territory
and the heritage it entailed. Accordingly, supporters of the PQ were likely
unable to come to terms with the idea that Indigenous communities could
demand territorial sovereignty in a space which signified French- Québécois’
heritage. This, in essence, could explain why the events depicted in Incident at
Restigouche unfolded the way they did.
These findings are likely to invite criticism. Jacques-Yvan Morin, the PQ’s
Vice Prime Minister of Québec between 1976 and 1984, would vehemently
disagree with this paper’s findings.*” According to a 1992 essay penned by
Morin, it was during the “fertile years of the Quiet Revolution” that René
Lévesque began understanding the importance of according Indigenous
persons certain rights. Morin’s essay supports this claim by highlighting
how, once in power, Lévesque never attempted to diminish the James Bay
and Northern Québec Agreement (JBANQA). The latter, which gave the Cree
and Inuit of Northern Québec special governing rights over their resources
and communities in response to the creation of hydro dams, was initiated by
the PQ’s preceding Liberal government in 1975.** As per Morin, Lévesque’s
statesmanship led him not only to respect the agreement, but also to create
the Secrétariat des activités gouvernementales en milieu amérindien et
inuit. The secretariat would ultimately be instrumentalized to ensure the
implementation of JBANQA. To Morin, these ostensible acts of goodwill
prove that Lévesque strove to create a “climate of trust and of mutual respect”
between French-speaking sovereigntists and Indigenous communities. Ifthese
claims were true, they would indeed undermine the arguments presented
in the last twelve pages. However, Morin’s biases are evident and serve to
Bédard, La géographie culturelle québécoise, 224.
The entirety of the information in this paragraph (unless otherwise specified) has been taken
from: Jacques-Yvan Morin, René Lévesque et les droits fondamentaux des Autochtones du
Québec, Fondation René Lévesque, 1992, https://fondationrene-levesque.org/rene-levesque/
ecrits-sur-rene-levesque/jacques-yvan-morin-rene-levesque-et-les-droits-fondamentaux¬
des-autochtones-du-quebec/ (accessed 8 April 2020).
Indian and Northern Affairs Canada, The James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement and
the Northeastern Quebec Agreement, Report QS-Q036-009-BB-A1, Ottawa, 2009, 5,
https://www.aadnc-aandc.gc.ca/DAM/DAM-INTER-HQ/STAGING/texte-text/jb0507_
1100100030831_eng.pdf (accessed 8 April 2020).
* 201 +