Selwyn House School - Yearbook (Montreal, Quebec Canada)

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I4 BELWYN HOUSE SCHOOL MAGAZINE Quebec's Contribution to Confederation from 1867-1967 In Quebec today, a question has arisen in the minds of many English and French- speaking Quebecers: that quesilon ls: llWill Quebec secede from Confederation? Recent events have shown that some Quebecois would like to see their state as an independent republic. These people have their reasons for wishing to see Quebec a republic, but why do they strive so hard to undo the work of the men who made Confederation possible, among whom were French Canadians? ls the situation that desperate that the nation should be split up? These separatists want to ruin the work of one hundred years, during which Canada grew up-one hundred years work, to which Quebec itself contributed. That is the topic of my essay: Quebec's contributions to Confederation. This province's first important contribution was in the realization of Confederation itself. lt was a French Canadian George ilater Sir George! Etienne Cartier, who had the insight to see that unless French and English Canadians joined as one, there would never be Confederation. Thus, in 1864 he joined forces with John A. Macdonald and the Conservatives of Upper Canada, in an attempt to achieve responsible government and confederation. This union proved that French and English could work side by side for the good of the nation. Later, in the same year, he displayed great statesman- ship at the Charlottetown and Quebec Conferences, where he and Macdonald were trying to explain the benefits of Confederation to delegates from the other provinces. During 1865-66, when the cause of Confederation seemed dead, Cartier, Macdonald and George Brown remained steadfast in their opinions and sailed to England to urge action on the British government. Finally their efforts paid off when on July 1st, 1867, the Canadian Dominion came into being, and Quebec had contributed to this event. For the next few years, Quebec played an unimportant role in national affairs and did not contribute much. ln 1885, there even arose rumblings of discontent and protest over the execution of Louis Riel, a half-breed rebel, who had tried to establish his own government in the West. After a while, these rumblings calmed down. The next notable contribution from the French speaking province came in 1896 with the election of Wilfrid Laurier as prime-minister. He had the honor of being Canada's first French speaking prime-minister, and he firmly believed that all Canadian people should understand each other and work together for their country. Laurier's fifteen years as prime-minister were years of unprecedented growth and prosperity. Although he was not directly responsible for this wealth, his policy did much to promote this good fortune, by encouraging immigration, opening up the West to settlement and railroads, and the expansion of commerce and industry. Laurier also established a Board of Railroad Commissioners to control railway rates and service, a Civil Service Commission for government officials, and a Commission of Conservation for the preservation and use of Canada's natural resources. ln 1900, he created a Department of Labor to control labor problems. Because of Laurier's policy of winning the people of every province to a common loyalty, and binding together the country, Canada had progressed much since 1867. When Laurier resigned in 1911, five provinces had been added to the four at the time of Confederation, vast changes had taken place in communications and trade, in ways of life and beliefs. A new sense of pride and loyalty for Canada had developed. In Quebec, this pride did not make itself too apparent, and if it was there the Quebecers were doing a good job of hiding it. They did not contribute anything until 1917, when they began to cause trouble. Borden was advocating conscription and wanted to introduce it in Canada. Laurier and some of the Liberals were against it -this caused a split in the Liberal party. ln Quebec, Henri Bourassa and his National-

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f wt 'WJ fX I jf. ml HZGYW Literary Competition This year, we are very much indebted to Mr. Moodey who once again iudged the annual magazine Literary Competition. There were a great many entries from the whole school and an especially large number from the Junior School. The entries were split into tour categories and the winners were: SHORT STORY - U. Scheel, ESSAY - R. Diez, POETRY - J. Matheson, JUNIOR - J. Stephens. Honourable Mentions went to: T. Bourne, M. Pollack, J. Carsley, Cavanaugh, A. Schindler, J. Wooler, J. McCalum, and T. Stoker. THE LIBRARY The year 1963-1964 has been a progressively good one tor our Library. We now have nearly fifty-four hundred books, divided between the Senior and the Junior Schools. There has been a large circulation of books, both in the Junior and the Senior Libraries and a great deal of research has taken place in the Senior Library. The Junior Libraries, downstairs, have been very thoroughly used and enioyed. In fact, the Juniors seem to find more time to read iust for enjoyment, than do the Seniors with their heavier schedules. There have been many generous gifts at books made to the Library by Captain Angus Murray, Colonel Campbell, Mr. Tim Rutley, Jamie MacDougaI, Richard Tetrault, Ron Linden, Charles Agnew, Sass Khazzam and Peter Roden. The School has purchased over twenty very fine books for the Library and Fines have purchased several more. We are all very pleased that it has become a habit tor some of the boys to come into the Library for a quiet bit of reading or study or even just to look through the magazines. The Library seems to be the recognized gathering place for Form VII. It is the aim of the School to make the Library an attractive, quiet place for work and reading. E. Pick, Librarian

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FOR THE SCHOOL YEAR i963-1964 25 ists represented the radical opinion of that province. Bourassa was entirely opposed to Canada's participation in the First World War, saying it was imperialistic. The issue reached such a point that an election was called and Laurier was defeated. The results of this issue led to misunderstanding and distrust between French and English Canadians. This may have been a first crack appearing in the structure of Confederation. Quebec remained quiet during the twenties and thirties, contributing nothing and causing no trouble. When the Second World War began, Quebec sent its men to Europe along with the rest of the Canadian troops. French and English once again fought side by side in defence of this nation. Some controversy arose during the war over the Dieppe Raid-when five thousand men, mostly French Canadians from the Fusiliers Mont Royal were sent to test the defences of the Wehrmacht in northern France. The result was the slaughter of three thousand men lprimarily French Canadiansj. Quebec's next contribution to Confederation was Louis Saint Laurent, who was Prime Minister of Canada from T948-56. Under the able leadership of St-Laurent, Canada grew in the eyes of the world and began to take its place as one of the more important powers. It was now playing a valuable role in the affairs of the world. ln Canada, under St-Laurent, there was no trouble or dissidence from any of the provinces, and Confederation seemed to be working properly. Thus, wealth and prosperity from the north and a new name in world-wide politics were the results of St-Laurent's leadership. The three great men I have written about have all done much for the cause of Confederation in Canada and they have all been from the province of Quebec, but there have been many more men from Quebec who have also contributed to Con- federation-only they have tried to destroy it. A good example of this type is the late regretted Maurice Duplessis, who as dictator of Quebec for some twenty years, retarded the advance of his province by thirty years. He as well completely corrupted the provincial government and left a large debt to be paid by his successor, when he died in 1956. Although Duplessis did not wish to withdraw from Confedera- tion, he did as much damage by keeping back his province, and trying to run it as if it were his own. The trouble and commotion in Quebec today may be a direct result of Duplessis' oppression while he and the Union Nationale were in power. Quebec's next memorable contribution was in 'l96'l and came in the form of a civil servant by the name of Marcel Chaput. His resignation from the civil service caused quite a stir in Quebec, and shortly afterwards Dr. Chaput published his book, l'Pourquoi ie suis Separatiste in which he gives his reasons for wanting Quebec to be a free state on its own apart from the rest of Canada. He followed this up by creating the 'illassemblement pour l'lndependance Nationale fR.l.N.l. This idea of separatism remained non-violent for a while, consisting only of demonstrations and speeches-until the spring of 1963, when an elderly man and an army sergeant-maior fell victims of terrorist bombs. The old man, Wilfrid O'Neil was killed, and the sergeant-major, Sgt.-Mai. Leia was maimed for life, courtesy of the terrorist Front de Liberation Quebequoise lF.L.Q.l. What looked like the beginning of a patriot revolution soon petered out because the 'lQuebequois either did not know or did not care what was behind the terrorist ideas. lt is early in T964 and with the recent raid on a Montreal armoury, the situation in Quebec is tense, but no one knows how it will all end. Many things may happen before 1967 and l wish to speculate upon the major events which could take place in these three years:- The rest of Canada lexcept in Quebec where the English have all been learning French and trying to speak in French. It is amazing what a few bombs can doll is tired of hearing all this talk about bilingualism and Quebec-this and Quebec-cela, in my opinion, if Quebec is not careful it may be ousted from Confederation-a solution