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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 “socioterritorial 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-fondamentauxdes-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 +
