Against the backdrop of the rising profile of the Parti Québecois, François Legault’s push for a Quebec constitution has received a lot of discussion in English-speaking Canada. But there is a low level of understanding about what this means, especially to the working class and the struggle for socialism. People’s Voice spoke with Quebec Communist Party leader Adrien Welsh, who shared his analysis of the situation.
PV: The National Assembly is currently debating Bill 1, The Quebec Constitution Act which was introduced late last year by then premier François Legault. Can you describe this legislation?
AW: About a year ago, then premier François Legault asked his Executive Council to prepare a “law of laws” that would defend some of Quebec’s particular features. What emerged was this draft Quebec constitution, in the form of Bill 1.
All the drafting happened behind closed doors – neither the National Assembly nor the labour and people’s movements were consulted, let alone a Constituent Assembly. It seems to me that if we are to “protect” Quebec’s identity, such a fundamental law should be debated publicly. From start to finish, from content to process, this constitution is bogus and has no legitimacy. Although, it is also true that none of the constitutions that the people or nations in Canada have lived under has been developed through a popular, democratic process.
The Québecois people have fought long and hard for a democratic solution to the national question. Yet here we have Legault, a self-styled nationalist and former PQ minister, manipulating the people’s democratic will into a text called “Quebec’s Constitution” which really carves in stone the demands of monopoly capital.
The idea of a constitution may sound nice to many Quebecers who wish to see their “province” be understood a nation, but the bill delivers the opposite. It forbids any entity receiving Quebec public funding from contesting the legality of a law. It counterposes collective rights to basic individual human rights by placing the “rights of the nation” higher than the Quebec Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms, which is arguably broader in scope than its Canadian counterpart.
We shouldn’t be fooled here. This sham of a constitution will mean more discrimination and more job loses – already a few hundred women in the education system were fired for wearing a hijab – all this under the pretext of “protecting Quebec.” In the end, Quebec capitalists are getting richer at the expense of the working class. As a cherry on the sundae, the national question is not being solved at all, but it is being used by the ruling class for its own divisive interests!
What the bill really does is create a notwithstanding close on steroids, reducing Canada to an empty shell in which each province can do whatever suits its particular capitalist interest. Instead of becoming Canada becoming the 51st US state, it will become 10 new states.
This shows why the Parti communiste du Québec (PCQ) is opposed to this sham of a constitution.
A Quebec constitution is something the PCQ has called for since 1965. What does such a process mean for the national question and the right of national self-determination?
The PCQ called for a Quebec constitution in the Manifeste from its 2nd Congress in 1967. But rather than serving the interests of monopoly capital, the PCQ’s proposal for a constitution is a way to unite labour and democratic forces against it.
The national question in Quebec, as in all oppressed nations, has an anti-monopoly and anti-imperialist potential, so the task of communists is to mobilize the progressive elements while isolating the reactionary ones.
A genuine Quebec constitution would provide leverage in the struggle for a new, democratic Canadian constitution that guarantees the right to self-determination, up to and including the right to secession, for Quebec and all nations in Canada.
This is what the PCQ wrote in a brief submitted to the Special Committee on the Constitution of Canada in May 1971: “having thus established sovereign control over their own state in the matters of vital national interest [meaning a Quebec constitution], the people of Quebec will be in a position to compel negotiations as equals with representatives of English Canada to work out a new Confederal Pact, a new Constitution for Canada.”
We see a Quebec constitution as part of the popular demand for a democratic solution to the national question, and a way to mobilize an anti-monopolist and anti-imperialist alliance.
But the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) government is doing the opposite, by using the national question to advance the class interests of monopoly capital. Theirs is a project that panders to separation and risks driving the working class – of Quebec, English-speaking Canada as well as Indigenous nations and peoples – into the arms of Trump or any other US president.
Can you be more specific about how the PCQ’s proposal for a Quebec constitution differs from what the CAQ is proposing?
I should note here that the idea of a Quebec constitution is not at all as far-fetched as the media in English-speaking Canada suggests – after all, British Columbia has a provincial constitution. But our proposal is different in three major ways.
First, it is popular and democratic in that it would be developed through a democratically elected Constituent Assembly.
Second, it would not supplement or be based on Canada’s current constitution but would rather be a democratic challenge to that document. It would call for a new constitution for all of Canada, one that recognizes the right of nations to self-determination up to and including secession.
Third, we fight for the national rights of Quebec, which are democratic. These is different from the current narrow-minded nationalist vision that defines Quebec and Quebecers in a narrow ethnic way. Our vision sees this process as a potential avenue for Canada to become an anti-imperialist force.
What forces in Quebec are opposing this law?
Unfortunately, there is little to no opposition to this sham constitution. True, Québec solidaire opposed the fact that Indigenous people were refused entry in the National Assembly; but in doing so doing, they signaled their objective support for the bill.
None of the political forces in the National Assembly are opposed. None of the labour centrals dare to voice opposition. The same goes for the student movement and the different democratic movements.
Unfortunately, many people hope that once Legault is gone, his policies will be gone as well. But this can’t be further from the truth. CAQ’s measures will not be dismantled – the PQ and QS themselves hope for independence, while Liberals and the far right look forward to continue using them to benefit state monopoly capitalism in Quebec.
The only opposition is that of the Communist Party. We are the only ones to actually propose a new constitution for Quebec, one that is democratic and forces Canada to establish a new pact between nations of the country, one that is based on an equal and voluntary partnership.
What does the national question mean for the working class and the struggle for socialism?
For the working people throughout Canada – whether Quebec, Indigenous, Acadian or English-speaking Canada – the national question is fundamental. People might think that a referendum has nothing to do with the other nations, but it involves all.
Canada is vulnerable in the face of the United States, and anyone who thinks that separation is the best way to strengthen the fight against US imperialism understands nothing from the basics of the struggle. An independent Quebec would not only force the working class of our nation to become subordinate to US, but it would have the same impact on the working class in the rest of Canada. Talk about internationalism!
Particularly in this current context of increasingly aggressive US imperialism, the working classes of Quebec and the other nations in Canada have a lot in common in the face of state monopoly capitalism and imperialism. However, for them to fight together, they need to be united on an equal footing – we cannot struggle together if we are divided by oppression. This is the importance of a Quebec constitution – a genuine and democratic one that will allow for a new and equal partnership among all the nations composing this country.
How does this affect the PCQ’s role in the upcoming Quebec election?
Heading toward the election in October, many people see the main danger as being a potential referendum leading to Quebec’s separation. But really, the main danger is the status quo and those who defend it.
Legault wants a sham of a constitution that will consolidate the power of monopoly capital, both from Canada and from Quebec. Through Bill 1, he is trying to consolidate his anti-democratic policies such that that no other political party will dismantle them once elected.
This is why the Parti communiste du Québec will run 10 candidates in the next elections. We will not be the “anti-CAQ party” – we be the party, the only party, to attack state monopoly capitalism. Campaigning with the call for a genuine Constituent Assembly will allow us to build bridges with progressive forces in our common struggle against imperialism, for peace and sovereignty.
Sovereignty for Canada can only be realized through the sovereignty of Quebec and the other oppressed nations and people in the country – and the reverse is also true. And this points to the necessity for a new constitution.
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