National Geographic : 1977 Apr
inquiry bore that out: Anglophones dominate the Quebec economy; Francophones who want to get somewhere in business or industry had better adopt Anglophone ways. It's been like that since Britain conquered New France in 1760, says historian Robert Lionel Seguin. "To keep those 60,000 Franco phone Canadiens quiet, the British pledged to let them retain their religion and French civil law. They expected them to be swamped by Anglophone immigration." But no. A century later, when Britain cre ated the Confederation of Canada, Franco phones were still overwhelmingly in the ma jority in Quebec Province. "Thanks mainly to a phenomenal birthrate," says Professor S6guin. "By 1867 there were a million." There had been unrest in Quebec, and a bloody uprising of les Patriotes in 1837. To make the Confederation more palatable to Quebec, French was made an official lan guage in the new federal Parliament in Ottawa. Education remained in provincial hands, hence church-run schools have helped the French language to survive. To this day, many in Quebec tend to think of themselves as a nation, as a distinct people whose interests may not be identical with Canadian interests. In World War II, so a senior Quebec civil servant told me, nearly everyone had a cousin or two who were hiding in the woods to escape military con scription. "They got food from everyone. Police going after them got shot at." It was a major Canadian crisis in 1942. IERRE ELLIOTT TRUDEAU, a Que bec Francophone, became federal Prime Minister nine years ago, aiming to hold the Confederation together; separatist ter rorists had been throwing bombs. Seeking to mollify Quebec and to make French Canadi ans feel more at home in all Canada, Parlia ment voted for bilingualism-to make federal services available in both languages across the continent. To make the predominantly Anglophone civil service work in both languages, thou sands of federal officials have had to take as much as a year off to study French lest their advancement be blocked. Many say they don't like it-bilingualism goes too far. As I learned soon enough, many Queb6cois don't like it either. For them it doesn't go far enough. Standard-bearer of Quebec sovereignty, Ren6 LUvesque is surrounded by supporters and the press after the victory last November of his Parti Queb6cois. Fiery but level headed, the former Liberal cabinet minister formed this party of independence in 1968. Separation, he now says, will come only if approved by referendum.