With all the talk about Trump wanting to make Canada the 51st state lately, Beiseker author Jeanette Lebleu Richter says it has brought up several unpleasant memories from her childhood.
Richter grew up as a French Canadian living in Manitoba, and has previously published the critically acclaimed book Spoiled Heritage: The Manitobans which looked at the Riel Rebellion and the erosion of French Canadian rights in the province in the late 19th century.
These rights were not fully restored until the early 1980s after years of government repression, but that is also where the next chapter of Richter’s new, as yet untitled, book begins.
“I'm just writing about what it was like in the province at the time, and how there was a big outcry against these rights that were enshrined in the Canada Act and the BNA Act,” she explained.
Richter vividly recalls the atmosphere of repression she was brought up in as a French speaking girl in Manitoba under the thumb of anti-French sentiment and policies.
“I guess a pivotal moment for me was when I was in school, and I was in a private school because the public schools had been taken away from the French,” she remembered. “So I was in a convent school run by the (Catholic) Church. When the English inspector came to visit our school, we had to put all our books away, hide our books, erase everything if it was French off the board, and start talking English.
“The nuns also started talking English to us because, at the time, it was illegal to have French at all in the schools being taught. It made me feel less of a citizen because we're doing something illegal here. That was what kind of marked me as an injustice. And this is why I've been writing and studying and doing all of this work for years.”
Richter says French language rights were finally restored in the early 1980s, but many were not happy about it in English speaking Manitoba at the time.
“When the rights were restored, it just brought up so much hate and racism and fear in the rest of the population,” she recalled.
Richter said French speaking Canadians have worked long and hard to have their language rights respected in the rest of Canada, and the conflict between English and French has made Canada a stronger country over time. Which brings her back to the 51st state problem.
“One of the strengths of Canada is that French is an island surrounded by English,” she said. “This tension between the French and the English for over like 150 years now has made us a strong nation. This distinction between us has created a stronger nation because we have to get along. We’ve learned to get along. We get along, but, you know, in the States they don't seem to get along.”
Richter expands on this point.
“I've always felt that I would never want to be an American citizen. And most French Canadians feel that way because we feel we wouldn't want to be involved in that melting pot they have down there. You don’t have any choices. You must be English. You must be American. You must not be anything but American and English, but in Canada you can be French and you can be English as well.”
Richter acknowledges the French Canadian experience has not always been good in Canada, and many challenges in that respect still remain, particularly in western Canada. However, she is sure it would likely get worse if Canada ever became part of the United States. And, she knows, it's not just French Canadians who feel that way.
“I've always kind of hidden that kind of anti-American feeling that I have, but recently one of my (English speaking) friends just flat out said flat out said: ‘I'd rather be dead than being American.’ And I thought, ‘Well, I'm not the only one.’
“Just because I'm French, doesn't mean other Canadians don't share my feelings. Now with this Trump telling us that we should be the 51st state, there's also all kinds of English Canadians, English Albertans, who feel the same as me.”
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