Enough Is Enough: An Attorney's Struggle for Democracy in Quebec

Terry A. Crowley is an associate professor of history at the University
of Guelph, and the author of Agnes Macphail and the Politics of
Equality.

Beware the lawyer who grasps his 15 minutes of fame in a court challenge
to Quebec’s secession before the province has left Canada. Beware the
overzealous convert from the Parti Québécois who after 25 years of
faithful adherence to independentist ideas has discovered nirvana in
federalism. Beware the scaremonger: “[T]he Parti Québécois
government, led by Jacques Parizeau and supported by Lucien Bouchard,
plotted, as early as 1994, a constitutional coup d’état in the form
of a unilateral secession that would have driven all of Quebec society
into a serious crisis.” Beware the mudslinger (“this separatist
Mafia”) and the name-caller: “The separatist élite has inherited
the worst traits common to all religious fanatics. Its members are
intolerant, unyielding, intellectually dishonest, and incapable of
either growth or self-doubt.” Beware those who downplay the strength
of the opposition while pretending to speak in name of the true
majority: “Most Quebeckers no longer want independence.” Beware the
maverick and the legal sideshow lest they so detract from the real drama
of the political theatre that military conflict ensues.