Celebrating 80 years ...

The Parti Quebecois became the provincial government in Quebec in November 1976. Almost a year later, on Oct. 6, 1977, the Jewish Western Bulletin ran a cover story on the anxiety that election victory was causing among the Jewish and other minority communities living in Quebec. The main issue of concern, of course, was that the Parti Quebecois ran and won, in part, because they wanted “independence from the rest of Canada, which they justified on the basis of the language and cultural differences and on Quebec’s economic size.

“The legislation enacted has been controversial because Premier René Lévesque is determined to tackle both the rights of the French-speaking population and their education as a first priority,” stated the JWB article. “The law to promote the primacy of French in Quebec has now been approved by the Assembly. The law would restrict the English school population to its present level by forbidding newcomers to Quebec to attend English schools – except for parents assigned to the province for three years or less.

“The law would require companies in Quebec to organize French programs for their personnel,” wrote Eric Moonman, British MP and chair of the U.K. Zionist Federation at the time, before editorializing that, “To put it bluntly, the language requirement is a nuisance, an imposition to redress the so-called advantages of the minority of the English-speaking population.” He then goes on to say that the law brings back memories to Jews of “different threats to an existence at a different time and in a different continent in the 1920s and 1930s.” Mentioning an increase in antisemitism in Quebec, Moonman stressed, “Nationalism and its supporters afford no help to Jews.”

The concerns of the business community were also noted, one unidentified man saying, “We don’t know whether our Toronto-based operation will suddenly find that its Montreal branch is in a foreign country.”

The article acknowledged that “Quebec has an advanced Charter of Human Rights and Freedom.... This was added to even two years ago, when the Quebec Charter ... affirmed ‘that all human beings are equal in worth and dignity, and are entitled to equal protection of the law.’” Nonetheless, the article concluded on a fearful note, with “suspicions remain[ing] as to what the new party and policies will lead to.”